QSAFE‐V: Quantum‐Enhanced Lightweight Authentication Protocol Design For Vehicular Tactile Wireless Networks

ABSTRACT With the rapid advancement of 6G technology, the Tactile Internet is emerging as a novel paradigm of interaction, particularly in intelligent transportation systems, where stringent demands for ultra‐low latency and high reliability are prevalent. During the transmission and coordination of autonomous vehicles, malicious adversaries may attempt to compromise control commands or swarm behavior, posing severe threats to road safety and vehicular intelligence. Many existing authentication schemes claim to provide security against conventional attacks. However, recent developments in quantum computing have revealed critical vulnerabilities in these schemes, particularly under quantum‐enabled adversarial models. In this context, the design of a quantum‐secured, lightweight authentication scheme that is adaptable to vehicular mobility becomes essential. This paper proposes QSAFE‐V, a quantum‐secured authentication framework for edge‐enabled vehicles that surpasses traditional security models. We conduct formal security proofs based on quantum key distribution and quantum adversary models, and also perform context‐driven reauthentication analysis based on vehicular behavior. The proposed framework is designed under a hybrid quantum‐classical architecture, enabling practical deployment in near‐term 6G vehicular networks where quantum capabilities are provisioned at edge infrastructure. The output of quantum resilience evaluations indicates that QSAFE‐V provides robust protection against quantum and contextual attacks. Furthermore, detailed performance analysis reveals that QSAFE‐V achieves comparable communication and computation costs to classical schemes, while offering significantly stronger security guarantees under wireless Tactile Internet conditions.