FPGA implementation of elliptic curve cryptography engine for personal communication systems

Elliptic Curve Cryptography (ECC), which allows smaller key length as compared to conventional public key cryptosystems, has become a very attractive choice in wireless mobile communication technology and personal communication systems. In this research, the ECC encryption engine has been implemented in Field Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGA) for two different key sizes, which are 131 bits and 163 bits. The cryptosystem, which has been implemented on Altera’s EPF10K200SBC600-1, has taken 5945 and 6913 logic cells out of 9984 for the key sizes of 131 bits and 163 bits respectively with an operating frequency 43 MHz, and performs point multiplication operation in 11.3 ms and 14.9 ms for 131 bits and 163 bits implementation respectively. In terms of speed, the cryptosystem implemented on FPGA is 8 times faster than the software implementation of the same system. . Key-Words: Encryption, ECC, FPGA, Synthesis, Hardware