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.

Cite: Gustavo S. Quirino and Edward David Moreno, "Architectural Evaluation of Asymmetric Algorithms in ARM Processors," International Journal of Electronics and Electrical Engineering, , Vol. 1, No. 1, pp. 39-43, March 2013. doi: 10.12720/ijeee.1.1.39-43