A Quantum-Secure Framework for IoD: Strengthening Authentication and Key-Establishment

The authentication and key establishment (AKE) mechanism is considered one of the promising solutions for securing communication in Internet of Drones (IoD) applications. Nevertheless, existing AKE mechanisms based on traditional cryptographic techniques rely on integer factorization and discrete logarithms, which are no longer safe with the advent of quantum computers. These shortcomings motivate us to design a cutting-edge Quantum Secure Authentication and Key-Establishment mechanism (QSAKE) for the IoD environment. To the best of our knowledge, QSAKE is the pioneered work that uses advanced quantum-safe cryptography, providing a strong defence beyond traditional methods. To further enhance security, it eliminates storing long-term secrets directly in drone memory, reducing the risk of unauthorized access. A Holybro Pixhawk-based microcontroller is used with a Raspberry Pi connected to a Xilinx Arty A7-100T FPGA board to develop a realistic testbed. Finally, this work stands out as a groundbreaking application of a complete authentication process within a practical IoD testbed, demonstrating its high efficacy and practicality.