AES algorithm implementation for a simple low cost portable 8-bit microcontroller

Encryption has become a critical need for almost every data communication systems. A huge value of sensitive data is transferred daily via different computer networks such as electronic banking, email applications and file exchange. Advanced Encryption Standard (AES) algorithm has become the optimum choice for various security services in numerous applications like Ad hoc networks and wireless sensor networks, which does not require high computing capacity, memory requirements, less power consumption. Therefore, many researches focus on this type of algorithm in order to improve its efficiency and performance. This paper deals with the challenge of implementing the AES algorithm on 8-bit microcontrollers that provides a low cost, fast and portable hardware key that guarantees the confidentiality, integrity and avoiding key exchange via unsecured channel that imposes a real thread on any symmetric algorithm.