A lightweight and robust block cipher algorithm for real-time applications

Ensuring the protection of big data during transmission or storage represents a highly significant concern for both enterprises and individual users. Cryptography is employed to convert data into a format that remains comprehensible solely to its intended recipients. The widely adopted Advanced Encryption Standard (AES) stands as one of the most robust encryption algorithms available. Nevertheless, its applicability to real-time applications is hindered by speed-related challenges and computational intricacies. This paper presents an innovative real-time lightweight symmetric block cipher algorithm based on a novel transformation named Mix-data, a low-cost random permutation, an S-box substitution, and an XOR operation with a robust key. The proposed cryptosystem is implemented on the Altera Cyclone III EP3C80F780C8 hardware platform in conjunction with a Raspberry Pi 4 software platform. The system implementation on the Altera Cyclone III FPGA utilizes only 4.851 of the total logic elements, consumes 14,974 mW of total power dissipation and achieves an impressive throughput of 15.81 Gbit/s. Rigorous security evaluations have been conducted to demonstrate its robustness against statistical and differential attacks. The evaluation results confirm the effectiveness, speed, and high level of security of the proposed algorithm.