Title
Clock Frequency Impact on the Performance of High-Security Cryptographic Cipher Suites for Energy-Efficient Resource-Constrained IoT Devices.
Abstract
Modern Internet of Things (IoT) systems have to be able to provide high-security levels, but it is difficult to accommodate computationally-intensive cryptographic algorithms on the resource-constrained hardware used to deploy IoT end nodes. Although this scenario brings the opportunity for using advanced security mechanisms such as Transport Layer Security (TLS), several configuration factors impact both the performance and the energy consumption of IoT systems. In this study, two of the most used TLS authentication algorithms (ECDSA and RSA) were compared when executed on a resource-constrained IoT node based on the ESP32 System-on-Chip (SoC), which was tested at different clock frequencies (80, 160 and 240 MHz) when providing different security levels (from 80 to 192 bits). With every tested configuration, energy consumption and average time per transaction were measured. The results show that ECDSA outperforms RSA in all performed tests and that certain software implementations may lead to scenarios where higher security-level alternatives outperform cryptosystems that are theoretically simpler and lighter in terms of energy consumption and data throughput. Moreover, the performed experiments allow for concluding that higher clock frequencies provide better performance in terms of throughput and, in contrast to what may be expected, less energy consumption.
Year
DOI
Venue
2019
10.3390/s19010015
SENSORS
Keywords
Field
DocType
ECC,ECDSA,RSA,IoT,TLS,power consumption,IoT security,energy efficiency
Efficient energy use,Cryptography,Electronic engineering,Data Authentication Algorithm,Cryptosystem,Engineering,Throughput,Transport Layer Security,Energy consumption,Clock rate,Embedded system
Journal
Volume
Issue
ISSN
19
1.0
1424-8220
Citations 
PageRank 
References 
4
0.38
18
Authors
4
Name
Order
Citations
PageRank
Manuel Suárez-Albela1623.42
Paula Fraga-Lamas224119.01
Luis Castedo357773.24
Tiago M. Fernández-Caramés422618.31