QShield-ZTN: A quantum-resilient, standards-compliant secure orchestration model for autonomous 6G zero-touch networks

The evolution towards 6G networks demands unprecedented levels of automation, security, and quantum resilience to address the complex challenges of autonomous zero-touch networking. Current orchestration frameworks lack comprehensive quantum-resistant security mechanisms and fail to provide adaptive trust management suitable for dynamic 6G environments. This paper presents QShield-ZTN, a novel quantum-resilient, standards-compliant secure orchestration model designed specifically for autonomous 6G zero-touch networks. The proposed framework integrates hybrid post-quantum cryptographic algorithms, dynamic zero-trust policy enforcement, and an AI-driven multi-agent orchestration engine to ensure robust security in quantum-threat environments. Extensive experimental evaluations conducted using four heterogeneous datasets (NSL-KDD + , CICIDS2017 + , QShield-Synthetic, and Quantum-Dataset) demonstrate significant performance gains over ten state-of-the-art frameworks. QShield-ZTN achieves a 47.3% improvement in quantum resistance, 52.1% enhancement in autonomous decision-making accuracy, and 34.8% latency reduction, while maintaining high detection accuracy (97.3%) and energy efficiency (3.2 × 10^(-9) J/bit). These improvements are statistically validated using one-way ANOVA and paired t-tests (p < 0.01), ensuring the reliability and reproducibility of results. The proposed framework successfully mitigates diverse classical and quantum-enhanced attacks, maintains seamless interoperability with emerging 6G architectures, and provides standards-compliant guidelines for practical deployment.