Controlled Authentication Semi-Quantum Key Agreement Protocol for the Internet of Medical Things

In the Internet of Medical Things (IoMT), sensors automatically collect data and transmit it to hospital servers, where doctors provide professional medical advice. The emergence of IoMT has significantly reduced the burden on chronic-disease patients and improved their life security. However, the transmission of patients’ medical data still faces serious confidentiality and integrity risks. This paper proposes a novel healthcare-system architecture that integrates a controlled-authentication semi-quantum key-negotiation (SQKN) protocol, leveraging the unconditional security of quantum cryptography to mitigate potential data attacks. The hospital server acts as a trusted controller that supervises every protocol run and authenticates all participants, which effectively thwarts man-in-the-middle and identity-spoofing attacks. The semi-quantum design further minimizes the quantum-device burden on patients’ side. Experimental simulation under realistic noise (QBER ≈ 0.03 at 0.02/0.04 noise level, 3 000 shots) shows the protocol keeps the quantum-bit error rate below 3 %, while the overall key-generation efficiency reaches 92 %, demonstrating that the scheme resists known attacks and maintains high quantum efficiency for safeguarding IoMT data security.