Evaluating Post-Quantum Cryptographic Algorithms on Resource-Constrained Devices

TL;DR

This paper assesses the practicality of implementing post-quantum cryptography algorithms on resource-limited IoT devices, demonstrating their feasibility and performance implications for quantum-secure communications.

Contribution

It implements and evaluates three PQC algorithms on Raspberry Pi devices, showing their practicality for IoT security in resource-constrained environments.

Findings

PQC algorithms are feasible on lightweight IoT hardware.

Performance overheads are manageable for practical deployment.

Quantum-secure communication can be achieved on constrained devices.

Abstract

The rapid advancement of quantum computing poses a critical threat to classical cryptographic algorithms such as RSA and ECC, particularly in Internet of Things (IoT) devices, where secure communication is essential but often constrained by limited computational resources. This paper investigates the feasibility of deploying post-quantum cryptography (PQC) algorithms on resource-constrained devices. In particular, we implement three PQC algorithms -- BIKE, CRYSTALS-Kyber, and HQC -- on a lightweight IoT platform built with Raspberry Pi devices. Leveraging the Open Quantum Safe (\texttt{liboqs}) library in conjunction with \texttt{mbedTLS}, we develop quantum-secure key exchange protocols, and evaluate their performance in terms of computational overhead, memory usage, and energy consumption for quantum secure communication. Experimental results demonstrate that the integration of PQC algorithms on constrained hardware is practical, reinforcing the urgent need for quantum-resilient cryptographic frameworks in next-generation IoT devices. The implementation of this paper is available at https://iqsec-lab.github.io/PQC-IoT/.