Q-BLAISE: Quantum-Resilient Blockchain and AI-Enhanced Security Protocol for Smart Grid IoT

Abstract

The evolution of Smart Grids, a cornerstone of the Internet of Things (IoT), has revolutionized the electricity energy sector by enabling efficient, scalable, and secure energy management. As critical components of Smart Grid infrastructure, smart meters facilitate real-time data exchange between end users and service providers. However, transmitting sensitive data within these networks poses significant security challenges, particularly in the face of emerging quantum computing threats. Existing lightweight authentication and key exchange (AKE) protocols often fail to provide identity anonymity and impose substantial computational overhead, rendering them unsuitable for resource-constrained devices like smart meters. This paper presents a novel secure communication architecture for the Edge computing-assisted consumer devices and IoT (EACI) ecosystem, integrating Post-Quantum Cryptography (PQC) to ensure robust data integrity and access control against classical and quantum-era threats. The architecture employs a lightweight consortium blockchain, implemented using the Hyperledger Fabric framework, to maintain tamper-proof records of authentication events and energy transactions. Regional Edge Gateways (REGs) preprocess data and perform localized cryptographic operations, minimizing computational demands on resource-constrained devices. Furthermore, an AI-driven Intrusion Detection System (IDS) enhances the framework’s resilience by proactively detecting and mitigating security threats in real-time. The proposed architecture undergoes rigorous formal security analysis, demonstrating its robustness against quantum and classical cyber threats. Performance evaluations reveal a reduction of 31% in computational overhead, a 45% decrease in communication overhead, and a 15% improvement in energy efficiency compared to existing lightweight protocols, underscoring its suitability for resource-limited environments like smart meters. These findings establish the proposed architecture as a scalable, secure, and efficient solution for Smart Grids and other IoT environments, ensuring long-term data protection, system reliability, and operational sustainability in the quantum computing era.