Evaluating the Efficiency of Physical and Cryptographic Security Solutions for Quantum Immune IoT

The threat of quantum-computer-assisted cryptanalysis is forcing the security community to develop new types of security protocols. These solutions must be secure against classical and post-quantum cryptanalysis techniques as well as feasible for all kinds of devices, including energy-restricted Internet of Things (IoT) devices. The quantum immunity can be implemented in the cryptographic layer, e.g., by using recent lattice-based key exchange algorithms NewHope or Frodo, or in the physical layer of wireless communication, by utilizing eavesdropping-resistant secrecy coding techniques. In this study, we explore and compare the feasibility and energy efficiency of selected cryptographic layer and physical layer approaches by applying an evaluation approach that is based on simulation and modeling. In particular, we consider NewHope and Frodo key exchange algorithms as well as novel physical layer secrecy coding approach that is based on polar codes. The results reveal that our proposed physical layer implementation is very competitive with respect to the cryptographic solutions, particularly in short-range wireless communication. We also observed that the total energy consumption is unequally divided between transmitting and receiving devices in all the studied approaches. This may be an advantage when designing security architectures for energy-restricted devices.