Performance evaluation of post-quantum cryptography in IoT-based cyber-physical systems

Abstract

This study evaluates NIST-standardized post-quantum key establishment within an IoT-based cyber-physical communication framework. A reproducible Python testbed compares RSA-2048 with lattice-based ML-KEM-512 at operation and session levels, measuring computation, CPU-cycle costs, key and ciphertext sizes, session latency, estimated energy use, communication overhead, and handshake duration under AES-GCM protection. Results show that ML-KEM-512 achieves faster key generation, lower session latency, and reduced energy consumption than RSA-2048, but incurs larger public keys and ciphertexts. These trade-offs support its suitability for quantum-resistant gateway and edge-assisted IoT-CPS deployments, while desktop-based results remain a reproducible baseline rather than direct evidence for highly constrained microcontroller nodes.