P4chaskey: an Efficient Mac Algorithm for Pisa Switches

Cryptographic primitives are of paramount importance to guarantee security properties in communication networks. The associated computational complexity of cryptography standards makes it prohibitive to execute these primitives at line rate in the network core. Existing implementations of cryptographic MAC algorithms in $\mathbf{P 4}$ for programmable switches impose a severe performance penalty due to packet recirculation, which may not be tolerable at those network speeds. In this paper, we propose the first data plane design in $\mathbf{P 4}$ of the Chaskey algorithm, a widely used secure and lightweight cryptographic MAC algorithm, tailored for the PISA switch architecture. Our P4Chaskey is the first solution to compute MACs using 128-bit keys without packet recirculation, guaranteeing line rate Terabit speeds. As state-of-the-art solutions require recirculations for the same key size (reducing throughput performance) or offer weaker security (smaller keys), P4CHASKEY is now, to our knowledge, the most efficient MAC design for the target switch architecture.