Combining Post-Quantum Cryptography and Quantum Key Distribution: Taxonomy, Constructions, Proofs, Standards, Deployments and Open Problems

Abstract

Post-quantum cryptography (PQC) and quantum key distribution (QKD) address the quantum threat from opposite directions: PQC replaces vulnerable public-key algorithms with schemes believed to resist quantum cryptanalysis, while QKD derives keys whose secrecy rests on physical assumptions rather than computational ones. Because each approach has a distinct failure mode, a growing body of work combines them so that a session key remains secure if either component holds. We first establish the deployed baseline, hybrid classical-plus-PQC key exchange, against which QKD-augmented designs must be judged. We then propose a taxonomy of hybrid PQC-QKD designs along eight dimensions (integration layer, combiner construction, authentication scope and source, QKD topology, trusted entities, key-delivery interface, classical component, and evidence type), and use it to compare published protocols, including Muckle and its successors, MACsec and TLS integrations, and IKEv2 mechanisms standardised in RFCs 8784, 9370, and 9867. We examine key-combiner constructions in light of the KEM-combiner literature and of NIST, ETSI, and ITU-T guidance, and map the security arguments for hybrid PQC-QKD protocols onto a common grid of security model, assumptions, permitted compromise, established guarantee, and limitations. We synthesise deployment evidence from metropolitan and national QKD networks, distinguishing the few testbeds that have run PQC in the key path from pure-QKD deployments, and summarise the standards and policy landscape, including the positions of national security agencies that recommend against relying on QKD alone. We close with open problems: authentication of the QKD classical channel, shared-infrastructure threat models, device certification versus formal proofs, formal verification of hybrid handshakes, and the lack of peer-reviewed deployment economics.