Quantum cryptography as a solution for secure Wireless Sensor Networks: Roadmap, challenges and solutions

Wireless Sensor Networks (WSN) can collect information from almost everywhere, so they can be deployed ubiquitously. Nonetheless, data transmission within the WSN communication framework is vulnerable to interception. Therefore, it is necessary to create a secure WSN communication environment. The idea of cryptography has been used for years for secure data communication. The popular schemes are RSA and hash functions. However, with the significant advancement in the field of Quantum Computing, there is a need for unconditional security in data generated and distributed from sensor nodes. Quantum computing is in its early stages, but we can evaluate its impact on conventional cryptographic techniques by analyzing the Quantum Shor’s algorithm. Motivated by the aforementioned issues, this paper sheds light on Quantum Cryptography by analyzing various security concerns in WSN. In our work, Quantum Cryptography-based secure key agreement, Quantum Mistrustful communication, Quantum Entanglement and Quantum Teleportation are reviewed. The roles of each technique in association with WSN are analyzed. We proposed a novel Quantum WSN (QWSN) architecture to achieve high data security and effective data transmission. We analyze Quantum simulation tools, security attacks, and the influence of Quantum technology on traditional cryptographic methods. We have also included the demonstrations of quantum circuits on IBM Quantum Composer (IQC). The benefits and results are also discussed. In addition, we also discussed the open issues and challenges in implementing Quantum-based security for WSN. The article identifies and emphasizes several unresolved research challenges and future directions for advancing research and innovation in the domain of Quantum Cryptography.