Award Date

12-15-2025

Degree Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Science (MS)

Department

Computer Science

First Committee Member

Yoohwan Kim

Second Committee Member

Juyeon Jo

Third Committee Member

Zuobin Xiong

Fourth Committee Member

Ronghuai Qi

Number of Pages

84

Abstract

Post-quantum cryptography (PQC) adds larger certificates and extra workload to the Transport Layer Security (TLS) handshake. In order to analyze the effect of that change on content delivery, a controlled testbed with conditions replicating a Content Delivery Network (CDN) is used. The system uses a standard X.509 certificate chain over TLS 1.3. It compares RSA with classical key exchange, RSA with hybrid key encapsulation mechanism (KEM), and Module Lattice-based Digital Signature Algorithm (ML-DSA) with hybrid KEM. The test harness generates and provides certificates and establishes TLS parameters. The test harness also supports mixed web workloads and records key metrics, including handshake time, page and object latency, throughput, and server CPU utilization. Experiments consist of hot and cold cache scenarios as well as new and keep-alive connections. Across the matrix, the session establishment cost increases under hybrid and PQC suites, while steady-state delivery is dominated by caching and connection reuse. CPU load is concentrated at the edge, and certificate chains remain within routine CDN limits. The experiments are conducted under reproducible, controlled network conditions using linux tc/netem.

Keywords

Dilithium; HTTP3; Kyber; ML-DSA; ML-KEM; X.509

Disciplines

Computer Sciences | Physical Sciences and Mathematics | Software Engineering

File Format

PDF

File Size

1414 KB

Degree Grantor

University of Nevada, Las Vegas

Language

English

Rights

IN COPYRIGHT. For more information about this rights statement, please visit http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/

Download


Share

COinS