Using new bit-reorganisation and non-linear function layers to enhance the LTE ZUC algorithm

Due to the development of science, technology, and society, and with the advancement of life quality, more interest has been given to security issues. There are big challenges in mobile communications that should be overcome for an advanced level of security against new threats and risks. LTE has developed and grown into one of the powerful technologies that fulfil the performance goals of 4G mobile communication. ZUC stream cipher algorithm is the core of confidentiality and integrity LTE algorithms and has been extensively applied to 4G mobile communication security. ZUC algorithm was developed as a powerful alternative to different algorithms that were common before. In this paper, a modified version of the ZUC algorithm is proposed to reduce the encryption time and improve LTE security. MATLAB® R2019a has been used for the implementation. The results elucidated that the encryption time is reduced by approximately 4.25 % using the proposed algorithm. The proposed algorithm is also used to encrypt a sample text message where 1.198472 seconds is required for encryption compared to the original ZUC algorithm which required 1.458467 seconds.