This study proposes a lightweight industrial control protocol based on quantum key distribution (QKD) to enhance security and optimize performance in resource-constrained industrial control systems (ICS). Unlike traditional QKD schemes, primarily optimized for long-distance communication in ideal IT environments, this work introduces a resource-aware QKD architecture tailored explicitly for short-range industrial control networks with constrained computing/storage/bandwidth. The protocol constructs a multi-layered stack—integrating the physical layer, quantum key management layer, data link layer, network layer, and application layer—to enable secure quantum key generation, efficient distribution, and dynamic utilization, while avoiding excessive resource overhead on embedded ICS devices. Furthermore, three key optimization strategies are introduced: (1) resource optimization adopts AES-128 with FPGA acceleration, reducing encryption overhead from 15% to 20% CPU utilization to 3%–5% (validated in Sec. V A); (2) real-time assurance implements deficit-round-robin frame scheduling, guaranteeing 2.5 ms latency for safety-critical commands; and (3) stability enhancement utilizes dual-QKD-link redundancy with 5–8 s failover, improving MTBF from 3000 to 10 000+ h. The security real-time trade-off is quantified via coefficient B = Slevel/(Ddelay × δ) (detailed in Sec. V B), where Slevel ∈ 1,10 represents encryption strength, Ddelay is measured latency, and δ is CPU load. Experimental results show that the balance coefficient B improves from 2.1 ± 0.4 (Modbus) to 5.2 ± 0.6, confirming superior balance. This work provides a feasible technical pathway for securing critical infrastructure in the quantum era. Experiments demonstrate a 75% reduction in computational overhead and a real-time-security balance coefficient of 4.5–6.0, which is higher than that of Modbus and PROFINET.
Zhang et al. (Sun,) studied this question.