Profile picture for user awaneesh.cse

Dr. Awaneesh Kumar Yadav

Assistant Professor
Department of Computer Science and Engineering
Email:
awaneesh.cse@iitbhu.ac.in
Phone(s):
Website:
Area of Interest:
Cryptanalysis • Cybersecurity • Post-Quantum Cryptography • Quantum Key Distribution (QKD) • AI & LLM Security • 5G/6G Security • Authentication Protocols • Federated Learning & Federated Unlearning

Dr. Awaneesh Kumar is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Computer Science and Engineering at the Indian Institute of Technology (BHU), Varanasi, India. Prior to joining IIT (BHU) in May 2026, he served as an Assistant Professor in the School of Artificial Intelligence and Data Engineering at IIT Ropar and in the School of Computing and Electrical Engineering at IIT Mandi, where he was also affiliated with the Center for Quantum Science and Technologies (CQST). He completed his Postdoctoral Research at the School of Computer Science, University College Dublin (UCD), Ireland, under the European Union-funded ROBUST-6G project. He is currently associated with the Network Softwarization and Security Labs (NetsLab), University College Dublin, Ireland, and serves as a Visiting Researcher at the International Center for AI and Cyber Security Research and Innovations (CCRI), Asia University, Taiwan.

 

 

Dr. Awaneesh Kumar is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Computer Science and Engineering at the Indian Institute of Technology (BHU), Varanasi, India. His research focuses on cybersecurity, applied cryptography, post-quantum cryptography (PQC), quantum key distribution (QKD), authentication protocols, AI security, large language model (LLM) security, 5G/6G security, Open RAN security, network slicing security, federated learning security, and privacy-preserving communication systems.

His research aims to develop provably secure, lightweight, and quantum-resilient security solutions for next-generation communication networks and intelligent systems. He has made significant contributions to the design, formal security analysis, and cryptanalysis of authentication and key agreement protocols for wireless networks, 5G/6G communications, network slicing, IoT systems, metaverse environments, federated learning, and cloud-edge infrastructures. More recently, his work has focused on integrating Post-Quantum Cryptography, Quantum Key Distribution, Zero-Knowledge Proofs, and Artificial Intelligence to build secure architectures for future communication networks.

Dr. Kumar has published extensively in leading journals and conferences, including IEEE Transactions on Industrial Informatics, IEEE Transactions on Dependable and Secure Computing, IEEE Transactions on Network and Service Management, IEEE Transactions on Vehicular Technology, IEEE Transactions on Sustainable Computing, IEEE Transactions on Information Forensics and Security, Computer Networks, and IEEE Open Journal of the Communications Society. His research has also been presented at premier international conferences such as IEEE ICC, IEEE Globecom, IEEE CCNC, IEEE TrustCom, IEEE CNS, IEEE MASS, IEEE MetaCom, and IEEE NoF. His publication record includes contributions in classical cryptography, post-quantum cryptography, network slicing security, privacy-preserving federated learning, secure metaverse communication, blockchain-based authentication, and quantum-safe migration strategies.

He is currently leading research projects on quantum-safe authentication for 5G/6G network slicing, AI-powered security frameworks integrating Post-Quantum Cryptography and Quantum Key Distribution, and automated cybersecurity assessment systems. His research has been supported through competitive grants from ANRF, SPARC, MeitY, and other funding agencies.

Dr. Kumar actively collaborates with researchers from leading institutions worldwide, including University College Dublin (Ireland), Vrije Universiteit Brussel (Belgium), University of Surrey (United Kingdom), University of Oulu (Finland), Florida Institute of Technology (USA), Inria (France), CTTC (Spain), and Asia University (Taiwan). His long-term research vision is to advance secure, privacy-preserving, AI-enabled, and quantum-resilient communication technologies for future digital ecosystems.

 

                                                                        Peer-reviewed Journals

  1.  Awaneesh Kumar Yadav, An Braeken, Madhusanka Liyanage, “A Provably Secure Lightweight 5G-AKA Multifactor Authentication Protocol relying on an Extendable Output Function,” In IEEE Transactions on Network and Service Management  [H-INDEX-119, Q1, Impact Factor: 5.4].
  2. A. K. Yadav, A. Braeken and M. Liyanage, "A Provably Secure Lightweight Three-Factor 5G-AKA Authentication Protocol Relying on an Extendable Output Function," in IEEE Transactions on Network and Service Management, vol. 23, pp. 2396-2414, 2026, doi: 10.1109/TNSM.2026.3656167, [H-INDEX-119, Q1, Impact Factor: 5.4].
  3. Awaneesh  Kumar Yadav, Madhusanka. Liyanage and An Braeken, "An Improved and Provably Secure EDHOC Protocol Supporting the Extended Canetti–Krawczyk (eCK) Security Model," in IEEE Transactions on Network and Service Management, vol. 23, pp. 4724-4736, 2026, doi: 10.1109/TNSM.2026.3690530, [H-INDEX-119, Q1, Impact Factor: 5.4]..
  4.  An Braeken, Awaneesh Kumar Yadav, Jorge Munilla "A Practical Transition to Post-Quantum Security in 5G-AKA," In IEEE Transactions on Information Forensics & Security, [H-INDEX-182, Q1, Impact Factor: 8], (Early Access https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/11242216).
  5. An Braeken, Awaneesh Kumar Yadav, "Cryptanalysis of post-quantum key exchange schemes based on the hardness of the Inhomogeneous Small integer solution (ISIS) problem," In IEEE Transactions on Consumer Electronics, [H-INDEX-116, Q1, Impact Factor: 10.9] (Early Access- doi: https://doi.org/10.1109/TCE.2025.3633324)
  6.  Awaneesh Kumar Yadav, An Braeken “Efficient Privacy-Preserving 5G Authentication and Key Agreement for Applications (5G-AKMA) in Multi-access Edge Computing”In IEEE Transactions on Network and Service Management [H-INDEX-119, Q1, Impact Factor: 5.4] ( DOI: 10.1109/TNSM.2025.3635876)
  7. Eshika. Choudhary, Awaneesh Kumar Yadav, Ravi Kumar and Madhusanka Liyanage, "A Practical Approach to Transitioning 5G-AKA Toward Fully and Hybrid Post-Quantum Security for 5G and Beyond Communication," in IEEE Open Journal of the Communications Society, vol. 7, pp. 2980-2999, 2026, doi: 10.1109/OJCOMS.2026.3677962, [H-INDEX-67, Q1, Impact Factor: 6.1].
  8. Awaneesh Kumar Yadav, Shalitha Wijethilaka, Madhusanka Liyanage, “Blockchain-based Cross-Operator Network Slice Authentication Protocol for 5G Communication” In IEEE Transactions on Network and Service Management, Volume: 22, Issue: 4, Page(s): 3106 - 3119, 2025, DOI: 10.1109/TNSM.2025.3562874, [H-INDEX-85, Q1, Impact Factor: 5.4]
  9. Awaneesh Kumar Yadav, “SKAP-NS: A Symmetric Key-Based Authentication Protocol for 5G Network Slicing”, In IEEE Transactions on Industrial Informatics, Volume: 20, Issue: 11, Page(s): 13363 - 13372, 2024, DOI: 10.1109/TII.2024.3435535 [H-INDEX-214, Q1, Impact Factor: 11.7]
  10. Awaneesh Kumar Yadav, Mohammed Shojofar, An Braeken, “iVFAS: An Improved Vehicle-to-Fog Authentication System for Secure and Efficient Fog-based Road Condition Monitoring,” In IEEE Transactions on Vehicular Technology, Volume: 73, Issue: 9, Page(s): 12570 - 12584, 2024, doi: 10.1109/TVT.2024.3390607, [H-INDEX-236, Q1, Impact Factor: 7.1]
  11. Shalitha Wijethilaka, Awaneesh Kumar Yadav, An Braeken, Madhusanka Liyanage, “Blockchain-Based Secure Authentication and Authorization Framework for Robust 5G Network Slicing” In IEEE Transactions on Network and Service Management, Volume: 21, Issue: 4, Page(s): 3988 - 4005, 2024, DOI: 10.1109/TNSM.2024.3416418, [H-INDEX-
    85, Q1, Impact Factor: 5.4]
  12. Awaneesh Kumar Yadav, Manoj Misra, Pradumn Kumar Pandey, Pasika Ranaweera, Madhusanka Liyange, Neeraj Kumar “A Secure Authentication Protocol for IoT-WLAN using EAP framework,” IEEE Transactions on Dependable and Secure Computing, Volume: 22, Issue: 1, Page(s): 49 - 65, 2024, doi: 10.1109/TDSC.2024.3388467, [H-INDEX-107, Q1, Impact Factor: 7.5]
  13. Shubham Kumar, Kanhaiya Kumar, Awaneesh Kumar Yadav, Abhishek Anand, An Braeken, Manoj Misra “iZKP-AKA: A Secure and Improved ZKP-AKA Protocol for Sustainable Healthcare,” In Computers and Electrical Engineering, Volume-122, Pages- 109886, 2025, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.compeleceng.2024.109886, [H-INDEX-106, Q1, Impact Factor: 4.9]
  14.  Engin Zeydan, Luis Blanco, Josep Mangues-Bafalluy, Suayb S. Arslan, Yekta Turk, Awaneesh Kumar Yadav, and Madhusanka Liyanage “Blockchain-based Self-Sovereign Identity: Taking Control of Identity in Federated Learning,” In IEEE open journal of the communications society, Volume: 5, Page(s): 5764 - 5781, 2024, DOI: 10.1109/OJ-
    COMS.2024.3449692 , DOI: 10.1109/OJCOMS.2024.3449692 [H-INDEX-53, Q1,Impact Factor: 6.1]
  15. Awaneesh Kumar Yadav, Shalitha Wijethilaka, An Braeken, Manoj Misra, Madhusanka Liyanage “An Enhanced Cross Network-Slice Authentication Protocol for 5G,” IEEE Transactions on Sustainable Computing, vol. 8, no. 4, pp. 555-573, Oct.-Dec. 2023, doi: 10.1109/TSUSC.2023.3283615. [H-INDEX-37, Q1, Impact Factor: 3.908]
  16. Awaneesh Kumar Yadav, An Braeken, Manoj Misra, "Symmetric Key Based Authentication and Key Agreement Scheme Resistant Against Semi-trusted Third Party for Fog and Dew Computing," In Journal of Supercomputing, Volume 79, pages 11261–11299,2023, [H-INDEX-120, Q2, Impact Factor: 3.557]
  17. Pasika Ranaweera, Awaneesh Kumar Yadav, Anca Delia Jurcut, Madhusanka Liyange “A Novel Authentication Protocol for 5G gNodeBs in Service Migration Scenarios ofMEC,” In IEEE Transactions on Dependable and Secure Computing, Volume: 21, Issue: 4,Page(s): 2930 - 2948,2023, 2023, doi: 10.1109/TDSC.2023.3320647. [H-INDEX-107,Q1, Impact Factor: 7.5]
  18. Awaneesh Kumar Yadav, Manoj Misra, Pradumn Kumar Pandey and MadhusankaLiyanage "An EAP-Based Mutual Authentication Protocol for WLAN connected IoT devices,"IEEE Transactions on Industrial Informatics, 19(2), pp.1343-1355, 2022. [H-INDEX- 214, Q1, Impact Factor: 11.7]
  19. Awaneesh Kumar Yadav, Manoj Misra, Pradumn Kumar Pandey, An Braeken, Madhusanka Liyanage, “An improved and provably secure symmetric-key based 5G-AKA Protocol” In Computer Networks, 218, p.109400, 2022. [H-INDEX-166, Q1, Impact Factor : 5.6]

 

                                                                         Conferences

  1. Abdullah Aydeger, Engin Zeydan, Awaneesh Kumar Yadav, Madhusanka Liyanage " Security Evaluations of Post-Quantum Cryptographic Primitives Against Quantum and AI-Based Attacks" IEEE International Conference on Communications (ICC) 2026, Accepted- 24–28 May 2026 // Glasgow, Scotland, UK.
  2.  Abdullah Aydeger, Engin Zeydan, Awaneesh Kumar Yadav, Madhusanka Liyanage "Post-Quantum Public Key Infrastructures: Hybrid Certificates, Cryptographic Combiners, and Migration Strategies" IEEE Consumer Communications & Networking Conference (IEEE CCNC) 2026, Accepted-Camera Ready Paper submitted, Las Vegas, NV,USA.
  3. Onkar Garg, Awaneesh Kumar Yadav, Ravi Kumar, Atul Anand, Sugata Gangopadhyay "Post-Quantum Resistant Key Exchange Protocol for SSH Transport Layer Using SplitKEM" IEEE Cyber Security in Networking Conference (CSNet), Accepted (Camera Ready Paper submitted), Abu Dhabi, UAE.
  4. Shivam Patel, Ravi Kumar, Awaneesh Kumar Yadav, Manoj Misra "A Secure D2D 5G-AKA Protocol with Anonymity Resistance and Perfect Forward Secrecy" The 22nd IEEE International Conference on Mobile Ad-Hoc and Smart Systems (MASS 2025), Accepted (Camera Ready Paper submitted), Chicago, USA, Rank: Core B
  5. Awaneesh Kumar Yadav, Eshika Choudhary, Onkar Garg, Madhusanka Liyanage " PostQuantum Secure Lattice-Based 5G-AKA Protocol Resistant to Malicious Serving Networks with Perfect Forward Secrecy" IEEE Conference on Communications and Network Security ( IEEE CNS), Accepted (Camera Ready Paper submitted), Avignon, France, Security Tier-2 conference.
  6. Awaneesh Kumar Yadav, "A Post Quantum Secured Authentication Protocol for the Metaverse" IEEE International Conference on Communications (IEEE ICC) 2025 Conference, Accepted, (Rank: Qualis-A2, the flagship conference of IEEE COMST), 8–12 June 2025 // Montreal, Canada.
  7. Awaneesh Kumar Yadav, Mohammed Shojofar, An Braeken "A Provably Secure PostQuantum based EDHOC Protocol," In IEEE Consumer Communications & Networking Conference (CCNC) 2025, DOI: 10.1109/CCNC54725.2025.10976053, Las Vegas, NV, USA Rank: Core B
  8. Engin Zeydan, Awaneesh Kumar Yadav, Pasika Ranaweera, Madhusanka Liyanage, “Securing IoT with Resilient Cloud-Edge Continuum,” International Conference on Intelligent Computing, Communication, Networking and Services (ICCNS), 2024, DOI:1109/ICCNS62192.2024.10776405, DUBROVNIK, CROATIA.
  9. Shalitha Wijethilaka, Awaneesh Kumar Yadav, An Braeken, Madhusanka Liyanage, “ Privacy-Preserving Federated Learning Framework for Open Radio Access Networks (ORAN)”, In GLOBECOM 2024 - 2024 IEEE Global Communications Conference, 2024, DOI: 10.1109/GLOBECOM52923.2024.10901104, (Rank: Qualis-A1, flagship conference of IEEE COMST), Cape Town, South Africa.
  10. Shree Chand Khichar, Awaneesh Kumar Yadav, Manoj Misra, Brij B. Gupta “An Enhanced Authentication Protocol for IoT-AmI Environment ” In 2024 International Wireless Communications and Mobile Computing (IWCMC), 2024, DOI: 10.1109/IWCMC61514.2024.10592483, Ayia Napa, Cyprus, Rank: Core B
  11. Abdullah Aydeger, Engin Zeydan, Awaneesh Kumar Yadav, Kasun T. Hemachandra, Madhusanka Liyanage, “Towards a Quantum-Resilient Future: Strategies for Transitioning to Post-Quantum Cryptography,” In 2024 15th International Conference on Network of the Future (NoF), 2024, DOI: 10.1109/NoF62948.2024.10741441, In Castelldefels (Barcelona), Spain
  12. Madhusanka Liyanage, Pawani Porambage, Engin Zeydan, Thulitha Senevirathna, Yushan Siriwardhana, Awaneesh Kumar Yadav, Bartlomiej Siniarski “Advancing Security for 6G Smart Networks and Services ” In 2024 Joint European Conference on Networks and Communications & 6G Summit (EuCNC/6G Summit), 2024, DOI: 10.1109/EuCNC/6GSummit60053.2024.10597131, Antwerp, Belgium,
  13. Awaneesh Kumar Yadav, Pradumn Kumar Pandey, Kuljeet Kaur, Satinder Singh, Abbas Bradai " PSLP-5G: A Provably Secure and Lightweight Protocol for 5G Communication" IEEE International Conference on Communications (IEEE ICC) 2025 Conference, DOI: 10.1109/ICC45041.2023.10279330, (Rank: Qualis-A2, the flagship conference of IEEE COMST), 28 May 2023 - 01 June 2023, Rome, Italy.
  14. Awaneesh Kumar Yadav, An Braeken, Manoj Misra, Madhusanka Liyanage “A Provably Secure and Efficient 5G-AKA Authentication Protocol using Blockchain, ” In 2023 IEEE 20th Consumer Communications & Networking Conference (CCNC), pp. 1110-1115, 2023, DOI: 10.1109/CCNC51644.2023.10059918, (Rank: Qualis-B1), Las Vegas, NV, USA.
  15. Shalitha Wijethilaka, Awaneesh Kumar Yadav An Braeken, Madhusanka Liyanage, “Blockchain-based Decentralized Multi-party Certificate Management Framework” In 2023 IEEE 22nd International Conference on Trust, Security and Privacy in Computing and Communications (TrustCom), 2023, DOI: 10.1109/TrustCom60117.2023.00186, (Rank: Core B), Exeter, UK.
  16. Awaneesh Kumar Yadav, An Braeken, Manoj Misra, Madhusanka Liyanage, “A Secure Blockchain-based Authentication and Key Agreement Protocol for 5G Roaming” In 2023 IEEE 22nd International Conference on Trust, Security and Privacy in Computing and Communications (TrustCom), 2023, DOI: 10.1109/TrustCom60117.2023.00181, (Rank: Core B), Exeter, UK.
  17. Awaneesh Kumar Yadav, An Braeken, MiKa Ylianttila, Madhusanka Liyanage, “A Blockchain-based Authentication Protocol for Metaverse Environments using a Zero Knowledge Proof” 2023 IEEE International Conference on Metaverse Computing, Networking and Applications (MetaCom), 2023, DOI: 10.1109/MetaCom57706.2023.00053, Kyoto, Japan.
  18. Awaneesh Kumar Yadav, Manoj Misra, Pradumn Kumar Pandey, Kuljit Kaur, Sahil Garg, Madhusanka Liyanage "LEMAP: A Lightweight EAP based Mutual Authentication Protocol for IEEE 802.11 WLAN," In In ICC 2022-IEEE International Conference on Communications, pp. 692-697, DOI: 10.1109/ICC45855.2022.9839094, (Rank: QualisA2, the flagship conference of IEEE COMST), Seoul, South Korea.
  19. Awaneesh Kumar Yadav, Manoj Misra, Pradumn Kumar Pandey, Kuljit Kaur, Sahil Garg, Xi Chen “A Provably Secure ECC-based Multi-factor 5G-AKA Authentication Protocol,” In GLOBECOM 2022, IEEE Global Communications Conference, pp. 516-521, DOI: 10.1109/GLOBECOM48099.2022.10001345, (Rank: Qualis-A1, flagship conference of IEEE COMST), Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
  20.  Pasika Ranaweera, Awaneesh Kumar Yadav, Madhusanka Liyanage, Anca Delia Jurcut “Service Migration Authentication Protocol for MEC,” In GLOBECOM 2022, IEEE Global Communications Conference, pp. 5493-5498, (Rank: Qualis-A1, flagship conference of IEEE COMST), (Rank: Qualis-A1, flagship conference of IEEE COMST), Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
  21. Awaneesh Kumar Yadav, Manoj Misra, Madhusanka Liyanage, Gaurav Varshney “Secure and User Efficient EAP-based Authentication Protocol for IEEE 802.11 Wireless Lan ” In 2020 IEEE 17th International Conference on Mobile Ad Hoc and Sensor Systems (MASS), pp. 576-584. (Rank: Qualis-B1), IIT Roorkee, Delhi, India.
  22. Awaneesh Kumar Yadav, Byomakesh Mahapatra, Shailesh Kumar, Ashok Kumar Turuk, "Multi-layer Authentication and Key Agreement Protocol for Secured Data Transmission in C-RAN Protocols" In 2018 15th IEEE India Council International Conference (INDICON), pp. 1-6, IIT Madras.
  23. Awaneesh Kumar Yadav, Byomakesh Mahapatra, Ashok Kumar Turuk, "Secure key Management and Authentication Protocol for Virtual-BBU in C-RAN"In 2019 International Conference on Vision Towards Emerging Trends in Communication and Networking (ViTECoN), pp. 1-5.
  24.  Byomakesh Mahapatra, Awaneesh Kumar Yadav, Shailesh Kumar Ashok Kumar Turuk, "Privacy Preservation and Authentication Protocol for BBU-Pool in C-RAN Architecture" In Safety, Security, and Reliability of Robotic Systems, pp. 181-193. CRC Press, 2020.
  25.  Byomakesh Mahapatra, Ashok Kumar Turuk, Niranjan Ray,Awaneesh Kumar Yadav, Shailesh Kumar, " H-RAN: An Approach Toward Cloud-RAN Load Balancing" In 2018 International Conference on Information Technology (ICIT), pp. 216-220.