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FPGA Implementation and Energy Cost Analysis of Two Light-Weight Involutional Block Ciphers Targeted to Wireless Sensor Networks

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Abstract

In this paper, we investigate the energy cost of the FPGA implementation of two cryptographic algorithms targeted to wireless sensor networks (WSNs). Recent trends have seen the emergence of WSNs using sensor nodes based on reconfigurable hardware, such as a field-programmable gate arrays (FPGAs), thereby providing flexible functionality with higher performance than classical microcontroller based sensor nodes. In our study, we investigate the hardware implementation of involutional block ciphers since the characteristics of involution enables performing encryption and decryption using the same circuit. This characteristic is particularly appropriate for a wireless sensor node which requires the function of both encryption and decryption. Further, in order to consider the suitability of a cipher for application to a wireless sensor node, which is an energy constrained device, it is most critical to consider the cost of encryption in terms of energy consumption. Hence, we choose two involutional block ciphers, KHAZAD and BSPN, and analyze their energy efficiency for FPGA implementation.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Electrical and Computer Engineering, Faculty of Engineering and Applied Science, Memorial University, St. John’s, Newfoundland, A1B 3X5, Canada

    Xueying Zhang, H. M. Heys & Cheng Li

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  1. Xueying Zhang
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  2. H. M. Heys
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  3. Cheng Li
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Correspondence to Cheng Li.

Additional information

This work is supported in part by the funds from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council (NSERC) of Canada.

This work is extended from its original version published at CHINACOM'11, Harbin, China, August 2011 [1].

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Zhang, X., Heys, H.M. & Li, C. FPGA Implementation and Energy Cost Analysis of Two Light-Weight Involutional Block Ciphers Targeted to Wireless Sensor Networks. Mobile Netw Appl 18, 222–234 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11036-012-0353-7

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11036-012-0353-7

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