Assessment of Lightweight Cryptography Algorithms on ARM Cortex-M Processors

The proliferation of sensitive information and data processing in the Internet of Things edge and end devices is accelerating at a rapid pace. As a result, ensuring security becomes increasingly crucial. Although encryption is essential, edge devices often cannot accommodate large overheads. This study assesses the efficiency of ten lightweight cryptography (LWC) algorithms by comparing their power consumption, performance, and memory footprints in ARM Cortex architectures. The goal is to guide designers working with LWC and ARM processor architectures. The LWC algorithms, along with the baseline Advanced Encryption Standard (AES), are implemented and executed on ARM Cortex-M processors, intended for edge devices. Results reveal trade-offs associated with cipher properties and the inherent architectural resources of each processing device.