Performance Analysis of Postquantum Cryptographic Schemes for Securing Large-Scale Wireless Sensor Networks

Wireless sensor networks aim to collect environmental data for monitoring and decision-making purposes, often relying on low-power sensor nodes with limited computational resources, which makes it challenging to secure these networks using costly cryptographic primitives. Moreover, the emergence of quantum computers threatens traditional cryptographic schemes, and postquantum cryptographic schemes have been proposed as a solution. This work focuses on studying the behavior and performance of different combinations of postquantum digital signatures and key exchange mechanisms in wireless sensor networks where the number of nodes is large, including CRYSTALS-Dilithium, Falcon, SPHINCS+, CRYSTALS-Kyber, NTRU, and Saber, with a focus on their interaction and impact on network scalability. Simulation models are employed to generate metrics related to network functionality, application quality, and scalability with dynamic node behavior. The findings provide insights into the behavior of different combinations of postquantum schemes in wireless sensor networks and contribute to understanding their suitability and potential challenges in real-world deployments. In particular, the combination of Falcon and CRYSTALS-Kyber seems to be the most promising candidate for deploying secure sensor networks in the future. However, other combinations can present a better performance depending on their interactions with the parameters of the final application.