A migration framework for post quantum cryptography in 6G telecommunications

Abstract

Future mobile networks cannot migrate uniformly to post-quantum cryptography because long-lived trust anchors, constrained devices, external partners, edge services, slices, and non-terrestrial paths have different threats and deployment limits. This paper presents the Telecom Quantum-Safe Migration Framework (T-QSMF), a pre-standard 6G planning method that separates confidentiality harvesting from future authentication forgery, applies non-compensatory gates, and maps risk and constraint evidence to six treatments. Evaluation combines repeat software benchmarks, a pinned-key loopback harness, a controlled burst-loss model, and scoring-sensitivity scenarios. On one Xeon platform using different software interfaces, the defined hybrid workload averaged 1.712 ms versus 0.414 ms for the classical workload; these are build-specific baselines, not algorithmic or telecom-stack comparisons. Selected synthetic profiles show that larger experimental object bundles can cross a retry-quantile boundary, while author-selected scenarios expose boundary-sensitive classifications. T-QSMF links priority to trust placement, downgrade controls, acceptance evidence, rollback, and reassessment; production use still requires protocol-, device-, vendor-, and field-specific validation.