Elliptic-Curve-Based Security Processor for RFID

Abstract

Abstract-RFID (Radio Frequency IDentification) tags need to include security functions, yet at the same time their resources are extremely limited. Moreover, to provide privacy, authentication and protection against tracking of RFID tags without loosing the system scalability, a public-key based approach is inevitable. In this paper, we present an architecture of a state-of-the-art processor for RFID tags with an Elliptic Curve (EC) processor over GF(2 163 ). It shows the plausibility of meeting both security and efficiency requirements even in a passive RFID tag. The proposed processor is able to perform EC scalar multiplications as well as general modular arithmetic (additions and multiplications) which are needed for the cryptographic protocols. As we work with large numbers, the register file is the most critical component in the architecture. By combining several techniques, we are able to reduce the number of registers from 9 to 6 in the EC processor. To obtain an efficient modulo arithmetic, we introduce a redundant modular operation. Moreover, the proposed architecture can support multiple cryptographic protocols. The synthesis results with a 0.13 µm CMOS technology show that the gate area of the most compact version is 12.5 Kgates.

Design and design methods for unified multiplier and inverter and its application for HECC

“…Lee et al [26] use digit-serial multipliers, while Hein et al use a 16 Â 16 GFð2Þ multiplier and 32-bit accumulator. Comparing the implementation in [26], using a 16 Â 16-bit multiplier requires less area, lower power consumption.…”

“…Lee et al [26] use digit-serial multipliers, while Hein et al use a 16 Â 16 GFð2Þ multiplier and 32-bit accumulator. Comparing the implementation in [26], using a 16 Â 16-bit multiplier requires less area, lower power consumption. On the other hand, it requires 296k clock cycles, twice as many as Lee's ECC processor (and our HECC processor), for one scalar multiplication, and its energy consumption is about six times higher.…”

“…According to [1], a passive RFID tag should have power consumption less than 15 mW to guarantee 1 m operation range. Some ECC implementations [26,19] can already fulfill the requirements. We show that HECC can also fulfill the requirements with a comparable performance.…”

Light-weight implementation options for curve-based cryptography: HECC is also ready for RFID

“…For instance, Elliptic Curve Cryptosystem (ECC) was implemented for RFID tags [13,16]. According to [1], a passive RFID tag should have power consumption less than 15 µW to guarantee a 1 meter operation range.…”

“…Some ECC implementations can already fulfill the requirements. For example, ECC processor proposed by Lee et al [16], using 15.4 kGates with 130 nm technology, consumes 12.08 µW when running at 323 kHz, and one scalar multiplication takes only 243 ms. The ECC core proposed by Hein et al [13] consumes 10.08 µW when running at 106 kHz.…”