Post Quantum Secure Communication Protocol with Ultra Low-Power Hardware Solution for Ingestible Medical Device

Area of Science:

• Biomedical Engineering
• Cybersecurity
• Materials Science

Background:

• Ingestible electronics offer noninvasive gastrointestinal (GI) monitoring but face energy and data privacy challenges.
• Existing cryptographic methods are vulnerable to quantum computers, and prior solutions often neglect low energy consumption.

Purpose of the Study:

• To propose an ultra low-power, post-quantum secure hardware solution for ingestible devices.
• To address energy constraints and data privacy concerns in ingestible electronics.

Main Methods:

• Combined Lightweight Cryptography (LWC) and mutually authenticated key exchange (MAKE) within Post-Quantum Cryptography (PQC).
• Implemented a duty-cycling approach with a timer for deep sleep mode.
• Analyzed energy consumption and security of the proposed protocol.

Main Results:

• Reduced energy consumption for encryption/decryption by 59.12%/61.42% using LWC.
• Decreased key exchange energy consumption by 75.82% by omitting expensive digital signature algorithms.
• Achieved at least 67.66× energy savings per data session through duty-cycling, compensating for cryptographic overhead.

Conclusions:

• The proposed ultra low-power, post-quantum secure protocol significantly enhances energy efficiency for ingestible devices.
• This approach provides robust data privacy against quantum threats while maintaining minimal power draw.
• Duty-cycling effectively compensates for cryptographic operation energy costs, enabling sustained low-power operation.