Performance and Energy Evaluation of Lightweight Cryptography for Small IoT Devices

As the Internet of Things (IoT) continues to evolve, connecting physical objects to a shared network, the issue of security remains paramount. It is crucial to safeguard sensitive data to enable smooth data exchange and constant communication. Projections indicate that by 2030, the IoT will comprise approximately 25 billion connected devices. Security breaches occurring within the computing clusters supporting these devices can have far-reaching consequences. Cryptographic algorithms that were effective for traditional computing machines may not be suitable for devices with limited computing power, often referred to as lightweight devices. This limitation represents a significant obstacle to fully harnessing the potential of the IoT. This paper addresses two critical research questions aimed at evaluating the performance of cryptographic algorithms on resource-constrained IoT devices compared to conventional computing platforms. Our contributions in this work encompassed the proposal of a comprehensive evaluation method, incorporating novel metrics, to investigate six cryptographic algorithms, both heavyweight and lightweight, on resource-constrained IoT devices. Furthermore, I provide empirical evidence indicating the inferior performance of traditional heavyweight cryptographic algorithms on the Arduino platform, underscoring the significant gap in latency between observed and expected values. I believe this research presents invaluable insights into cryptographic algorithm performance within the IoT context, emphasizing the intricate challenges and considerations that influence the selection of suitable cryptographic solutions for resource-constrained environments.