FPGA Implementation of Modified SNOW 3G Stream Ciphers Using Fast and Resource Efficient Substitution Box

Abstract

Security plays a vital role in electronic communication, particularly in wireless networks like long term evolution (LTE), where safeguarding data and resources from malicious activities is crucial. Cryptographic algorithms are at the core of security mechanisms, ensuring the protection of sensitive information. While software implementations of these algorithms are relatively straightforward, they often need more speed in real-time applications for communication devices like mobile phones. Consequently, implementation of these cryptographic algorithms as hardware crypto processors becomes necessary. This letter presents a novel implementation of the SNOW3G crypto processor architecture for the 4G LTE security applications, focusing on area, power, and efficiency. The proposed modified SNOW3G architecture utilizes only 0.31% of the available area when implemented on an FPGA Zynq ZC702 and achieves 28.34 efficiency which quantifies as the ratio of throughput to the area. Furthermore, it consumes a total power of 0.142 mW. These low power and area requirements make the design highly suitable for integration into mobile devices, meeting their specific constraints and enabling efficient cryptographic operations.