Enhancing WSN Data Security Using a Randomized Asymmetric Certificateless Arbitrated Quantum Signature Scheme

Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs), consisting of spatially distributed sensor nodes (SNs) that collect and transmit data to a base station, often operate in environments where secure communication is critical. Classical cryptographic techniques, while effective, frequently struggle to balance strong confidentiality with low latency, leading to vulnerabilities and inefficiencies. To overcome these challenges, this paper proposes the Randomized Asymmetric Certificate-less Arbitrated Quantum Signature (RACAQS) model, a novel quantum-assisted security framework for WSNs. The model integrates the McEliece Certificate-less cryptographic scheme with Arbitrated Quantum Signature mechanisms, ensuring robust confidentiality, integrity, and authenticity of transmitted data. RACAQS operates through three core phases: key pair generation, arbitrated quantum signcryption, and arbitrated quantum unsigncryption. Through these processes, SNs achieve secure key distribution, quantum-based encryption, and reliable verification with minimal overhead. Simulation results demonstrate that RACAQS achieves up to 4% higher confidentiality, integrity, and packet delivery ratio, and a 14% reduction in computation overhead, compared with existing schemes.