Design of Cryptographic Core for Protecting Low Cost IoT Devices

Abstract

The security challenge of the Internet-of-Things (IoT) has to do with the use of low cost and low power devices in the communication network. This problem has given rise to the field of lightweight cryptography where less computational intensive algorithms are implemented on constrained devices. This paper provides the integration of lightweight encryption and authentication algorithms in a single crypto core. The crypto core implements a unified 128-bit key architecture of PRESENT encryption algorithm a new lightweight encryption algorithm. The core also implements a unified architecture of four lightweight authentication algorithms which come from the Hopper-Blum (HB) and Hopper-Blum-Munilla-Penado (HB-MP) family: HB, HB+, HB-MP, and HB-MP+. The hardware architectures share resources such as register, logic gates, and common modules. The core is designed using Verilog HDL, simulated with Modelsim and synthesized with Xilinx Design Suite 14.3. The core synthesized to 1130 slices at 189 MHz using Spartan6 FPGA device.