An exhaustive review of the stream ciphers and their performance analysis

Abstract

The number of internet of things (IoT) applications has increased, which has increased the demand for low-resource gadgets. The data produced by these devices must be protected to guarantee security. The devices operate in conditions with limited space, computational power, memory, and energy. High-security standards are difficult to achieve with limited resources. The detailed analysis of various stream ciphers and their performance metrics is reviewed in this manuscript. The functionality of the stream ciphers is categorized and thoroughly discussed based on both the hardware and software viewpoints. The security attacks and their countermeasure methods using stream ciphers are discussed. The performance metrics of most hardware-based stream ciphers, including the ECRYPT stream cipher project (eSTREAM) ciphers, are discussed. Each hardware stream cipher design highlights the hardware constraints such as chip area, frequency, throughput, and hardware efficiency. The work also highlights the various applications using these stream ciphers. The current trends using these stream ciphers are discussed with futuristic goals.