{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,5,6]],"date-time":"2026-05-06T16:09:32Z","timestamp":1778083772477,"version":"3.51.4"},"reference-count":43,"publisher":"MDPI AG","issue":"2","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2025,5,21]],"date-time":"2025-05-21T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1747785600000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["Cryptography"],"abstract":"<jats:p>The emergence of large-scale quantum computing presents an imminent threat to contemporary public-key cryptosystems, with quantum algorithms such as Shor\u2019s algorithm capable of efficiently breaking RSA and elliptic curve cryptography (ECC). This vulnerability has catalyzed accelerated standardization efforts for post-quantum cryptography (PQC) by the U.S. National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and global security stakeholders. While theoretical security analysis of these quantum-resistant algorithms has advanced considerably, comprehensive real-world performance benchmarks spanning diverse computing environments\u2014from high-performance cloud infrastructure to severely resource-constrained IoT devices\u2014remain insufficient for informed deployment planning. This paper presents the most extensive cross-platform empirical evaluation to date of NIST-selected PQC algorithms, including CRYSTALS-Kyber and NTRU for key encapsulation mechanisms (KEMs), alongside BIKE as a code-based alternative, and CRYSTALS-Dilithium and Falcon for digital signatures. Our systematic benchmarking framework measures computational latency, memory utilization, key sizes, and protocol overhead across multiple security levels (NIST Levels 1, 3, and 5) in three distinct hardware environments and various network conditions. Results demonstrate that contemporary server architectures can implement these algorithms with negligible performance impact (&lt;5% additional latency), making immediate adoption feasible for cloud services. In contrast, resource-constrained devices experience more significant overhead, with computational demands varying by up to 12\u00d7 between algorithms at equivalent security levels, highlighting the importance of algorithm selection for edge deployments. Beyond standalone algorithm performance, we analyze integration challenges within existing security protocols, revealing that naive implementation of PQC in TLS 1.3 can increase handshake size by up to 7\u00d7 compared to classical approaches. To address this, we propose and evaluate three optimization strategies that reduce bandwidth requirements by 40\u201360% without compromising security guarantees. Our investigation further encompasses memory-constrained implementation techniques, side-channel resistance measures, and hybrid classical-quantum approaches for transitional deployments. Based on these comprehensive findings, we present a risk-based migration framework and algorithm selection guidelines tailored to specific use cases, including financial transactions, secure firmware updates, vehicle-to-infrastructure communications, and IoT fleet management. This practical roadmap enables organizations to strategically prioritize systems for quantum-resistant upgrades based on data sensitivity, resource constraints, and technical feasibility. Our results conclusively demonstrate that PQC is deployment-ready for most applications, provided that implementations are carefully optimized for the specific performance characteristics and security requirements of target environments. We also identify several remaining research challenges for the community, including further optimization for ultra-constrained devices, standardization of hybrid schemes, and hardware acceleration opportunities.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/cryptography9020032","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2025,5,21]],"date-time":"2025-05-21T13:59:43Z","timestamp":1747835983000},"page":"32","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":37,"title":["A Practical Performance Benchmark of Post-Quantum Cryptography Across Heterogeneous Computing Environments"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"9","author":[{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-9011-0734","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Maryam","family":"Abbasi","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Applied Research Institute, Polytechnic of Coimbra, 3045 Coimbra, Portugal"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-3916-5182","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Filipe","family":"Cardoso","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Polytechnic Institute of Santar\u00e9m, Escola Superior de Gest\u00e3o e Tecnologia de Santar\u00e9m, 2001 Santar\u00e9m, Portugal"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-1745-8937","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Paulo","family":"V\u00e1z","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Research Center in Digital Services, Polytechnic of Viseu, 3054 Viseu, Portugal"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0001-7285-8282","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Jos\u00e9","family":"Silva","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Research Center in Digital Services, Polytechnic of Viseu, 3054 Viseu, Portugal"}]},{"given":"Pedro","family":"Martins","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Research Center in Digital Services, Polytechnic of Viseu, 3054 Viseu, Portugal"}]}],"member":"1968","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2025,5,21]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref_1","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"1484","DOI":"10.1137\/S0097539795293172","article-title":"Polynomial-time algorithms for prime factorization and discrete logarithms on a quantum computer","volume":"26","author":"Shor","year":"1997","journal-title":"SIAM J. 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