Performance Evaluation of Symmetric Cryptographic Algorithms in resource constrained hardware for Wireless Sensor Networks

Wireless sensor networks (WSN) allow to exchange information and to take immediate and remote actions in natural, industrial, military or domestic environment systems. These networks are vulnerable to cyber-attacks, hence, they are vulnerable to being intercepted, interrupted or modified. However, for the last twenty years, the amount of information exchanged through communication networks around the world has considerably increased and thus its vulnerability. As a result, encryption algorithms are fundamental to protect information. In this context, security, performance and energy consumption become a paramount design factor for an engineer when designing and implementing WSNs. It is not an easy task to reach an optimal balance between these factors. In this paper, we evaluate three well-known symmetric encryption algorithms in an embedded development platform: the ARDUINO MEGA 2560. Our experiment measures the algorithms encryption average execution time and energy consumption. Additionally, we measure the impact of the channels of a small wireless sensor network with two nodes. The evaluation demonstrates the feasibility of implementing cryptographic algorithms in devices with limited resources such as memory, computing power and life span (energy consumption). Furthermore, the low impact on the network channels when comparing unencrypted communication vs encrypted communication evidence the potential of symmetric encryption algorithms.