Architectural Evaluation of Asymmetric Algorithms in ARM Processors Gustavo S. Quirino and Edward David Moreno UFS/PROCC, Aracaju, Brasil Email: {gucefet, edwdavid}@gmail.com Abstract—This paper presents the performance evaluation of asymmetric cryptographic algorithms oriented to embedded platforms used in Wireless Sensor Networks (WSN). The algorithms RSA, ECC and MQQ were evaluated on ARM platform. We have used three criteria in our comparison: the processing time, memory and processor usage. We used the SimpleScalar tool for our simulations analysis. The MQQ algorithm achieved the best results in most of the evaluated criteria. Considering the same key sizes, the processing time for MQQ is at least 16 times smaller than the ECC and 230 times smaller than RSA. Regarding memory consumption, the MQQ had an occupation 61% lower than the RSA and 24% less than in the ECC. Besides these, other criteria such as misses on cache level 1, branches, replacements and write-backs were recorded in order to improve our assessment. Finally, we show the MQQ is a good algorithm for embedded systems since it is better than ECC e RSA. Index Terms—Embedded systems, Public-key cryptosystems, Performance Analysis and Design Aids. I. INTRODUCTION A Wireless Sensor Network (WSN) is composed of autonomous devices called sensor nodes that generally have low computational power, limited data transmission and power constraints. A WSN consists of sensor nodes that capturing information from an environment, processing data and transmitting them via radio signals. WSNs are increasingly present in our days and can be found in environmental area (climatic measurements, presence of smoke), in health area (measurement of vital signs, temperature), home automation (motion sensor and image sensor) and other areas. Generally, WSNs have no fixed structure, and in many cases there is no monitoring station of sensor nodes during the operational life of the network, so a WSN must have mechanisms for self- configuration and adaptation in case of failure, inclusion or exclusion of a sensor node. Security requirements of WSNs are similar to conventional computer networks, therefore parameters such as confidentiality, integrity, availability and authenticity must be taken into account in creation of a network environment. Due to limitations of WSNs, not all security solutions designed for conventional computer networks can be implemented directly in WSN. For a Manuscript received January 23, 2013; revised March 13, 2013. long time, it was believed that the public-key cryptography was not suitable for WSNs because it was required high processing power, but through studies of encryption algorithms based on curves was verified the feasibility of that technique in WSN. The cryptographic algorithm RSA is currently the most used among the asymmetric algorithms, working from the difficulty of factoring large prime numbers. Standardized by National Institute of Standard and Technology (NIST), this algorithm is widely used in transactions on the Internet. The Elliptic Curve Cryptography (ECC) was created in 80s, and are based on the difficulty of solving the discrete logarithm problem on elliptic curves. Despite its complexity the algorithm based on elliptic have been extensively studied in academia. Recently, the public-key algorithm called Multivariate Quadratic Almost Group (MQQ) was proposed in academia. Experiments performed in the FPGA and PC platforms showed that MQQ is faster than algorithms such as RSA and ECC [1, 2]. Algorithms involved in this study are asymmetric, but each one works with a specific encryption mode. Many studies have evaluated performance of cryptographic algorithms in WSNs, but there is no standardization in the performance analysis. As stated by Margi [3] studies on performance evaluation of cryptographic algorithms for WSNs are often quite different in terms of methodology, platform, metrics and focus of analysis, what difficult a direct comparison among the obtained results. Thus, this paper describes a theoretical study of cryptographic such as RSA, ECC and MQQ as well as the performance analysis of these algorithms in ARM embedded platforms used in wireless sensor networks. This paper is organized as follows. Section II gives some background about asymmetric algorithms RSA, ECC and MQQ. Section III discusses on the implementations and observation in the performance evaluation. Finally, some concluding remarks and planning for future works are outlined in Section IV. II. ASSYMETRIC ALGORITHMS The IEEE 802.15.4 standard of 2011 defines parameters for low-range personal area networks (LR- WPANs). The first version of this standard was launched in 2003, and the second one [4] was appointed to be the standard communication protocol for WSNs. The encryption mechanism specified in IEEE 802.15.4 standard is based on encryption symmetric key. But International Journal of Electronics and Electrical Engineering Vol. 1, No. 1, March 2013 39 ©2013 Engineering and Technology Publishing doi: 10.12720/ijeee.1.1.39-43