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September 10, 2025

AQ-ResCon: Adaptive Quantum-Resistant Lattice-Based Key Agreement Protocol for Secure Distributed Container Orchestration in Edge Cloud Environments

SMSajida MemonDawood University of Engineering and Technology ALAbdullah LakhanVSB - Technical University of Ostrava QMQurat-ul-ain MastoiUniversity of the West of England

Key Points

AQ-ResCon improves scheduling efficiency by 36%, ensuring better management of healthcare workloads.
This protocol reduces key compromise rates by 41%, highlighting its enhanced security against quantum algorithms.
It leverages lattice-based cryptography and the Learning With Errors problem for robust defense against quantum attacks.
AQ-ResCon maintains consistent performance against simulated quantum conditions, suggesting its resilience in real-world applications.

Abstract

In the rapidly evolving domain of smart healthcare, the integration of Docker containers and Kubernetes with Internet of Things (IoT) edge cloud orchestration has significantly enhanced the performance, scalability, and modularity of healthcare applications. However, despite the efficiency benefits provided by microservices architecture, substantial security vulnerabilities persist, particularly in the face of the threat of quantum computing. Quantum algorithms, such as Shor’s and Grover’s, pose a significant risk to conventional encryption schemes, potentially compromising the integrity and confidentiality of healthcare data distributed across edge cloud environments. To address these critical concerns, we propose AQ-ResCon: an Adaptive Quantum-Resistant Lattice-Based Key Agreement Protocol designed for secure and resilient distributed container orchestration. AQ-ResCon leverages the hardness of the Learning With Errors (LWE) problem in lattice-based cryptography to provide a robust defence against quantum attacks. We further introduce the AQ-ResCon Scheduler Algorithm, which efficiently manages and executes healthcare workloads across decentralised IoT-edge-cloud nodes, ensuring secure data flow and orchestration. Extensive testbed experiments were conducted to evaluate the performance and security effectiveness of AQ-ResCon under realistic containerised healthcare scenarios. Results demonstrate that AQ-ResCon achieves up to 36% improvement in scheduling efficiency, 41% reduction in key compromise rates, and 28% lower latency compared to existing quantum-vulnerable orchestration protocols. Additionally, the AQ-ResCon protocol maintained consistent performance under simulated quantum attack conditions, validating its adaptability and resilience. These outcomes confirm that AQ-ResCon is a viable, secure, and future-proof solution for safeguarding microservices-based healthcare applications against evolving quantum threats in edge cloud environments.

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