Analysis of Lightweight Cryptographic Algorithms on IoT Hardware Platforms

Abstract

Highly constrained devices that are interconnected and interact to complete a task are being used in a diverse range of new fields. The Internet of Things (IoT), cyber-physical systems, distributed control systems, vehicular systems, wireless sensor networks, tele-medicine, and smart grid are a few examples of these fields. In any of these contexts, security and privacy might be essential aspects. Research on secure communication in Internet of Things (IoT) networks is a highly contested topic. One method for ensuring secure data transmission is cryptography. Since IoT devices have limited resources, such as power, memory, and batteries, IoT networks have boosted the term “lightweight cryptography”. Algorithms for lightweight cryptography are designed to efficiently protect data while using minimal resources. In this research work, we evaluate and benchmark lightweight symmetric ciphers for resource-constrained devices. The evaluation is performed using two widely used platform: Arduino and Raspberry PI. In the first part, we implement 39 block ciphers on an ATMEGA328p micro-controller and analyze them in terms of speed, cost, and energy efficiency during encryption and decryption for different block and key sizes. In the second part, the 2nd round NIST candidates (80 stream and block cipher algorithms) were added to the first part ciphers in a comprehensive analysis for equivalent block and key sizes in terms of latency and energy efficiency.