Abstract:
Ensuring secure data transmission in agrotechnical monitoring systems using
unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) is critical due to increasing cyber threats, particularly with
the advent of quantum computing. This study proposes the integration of Quantum Key
Distribution (QKD), based on the BB84 protocol, as a secure key management mechanism to
enhance data security in UAV-based geographic information systems (GIS) for monitoring
agricultural fields and forest fires. QKD is not an encryption algorithm but a secure
key distribution protocol that provides information-theoretic security by leveraging the
principles of quantum mechanics. Rather than replacing traditional encryption methods,
QKD complements them by ensuring the secure generation and distribution of encryption
keys, while AES-128 is employed for efficient data encryption. The QKD framework is
optimized for real-time operations through adaptive key generation and energy-efficient
hardware, alongside Lempel–Ziv–Welch (LZW) compression to improve the bandwidth
efficiency. The simulation results demonstrate that the proposed system achieves secure
key generation rates up to 50 Mbps with minimal computational overhead, maintaining
reliability even under adverse environmental conditions. This hybrid approach significantly
improves data resilience against both quantum and classical cyber-attacks, offering a
comprehensive and robust solution for secure agrotechnical data transmission.
