Analyzing the security-performance tradeoff in block ciphers

In this paper, we have presented comparative performance analysis of symmetric key algorithms particularly of block ciphers. Performance evaluation of various block ciphers has been carried out in terms of encryption time, avalanche effect, throughput, CPU time, and power consumption. The obtained numerical values show that there is always a tradeoff between security and the network performance. RC6 outperforms the AES for all the parameters except security. We have introduced a new modified version of RC6 referred to as MC-RC6 with enhanced security and performance better than AES.