Improving the Performance of RLizard on Memory-Constraint IoT Devices with 8-Bit ATmega MCU

Abstract

We propose an improved RLizard implementation method that enables the RLizard key encapsulation mechanism (KEM) to run in a resource-constrained Internet of Things (IoT) environment with an 8-bit micro controller unit (MCU) and 8–16 KB of SRAM. Existing research has shown that the proposed method can function in a relatively high-end IoT environment, but there is a limitation when applying the existing implementation to our environment because of the insufficient SRAM space. We improve the implementation of the RLizard KEM by utilizing electrically erasable, programmable, read-only memory (EEPROM) and flash memory, which is possessed by all 8-bit ATmega MCUs. In addition, in order to prevent a decrease in execution time related to their use, we improve the multiplication process between polynomials utilizing the special property of the second multiplicand in each algorithm of the RLizard KEM. Thus, we reduce the required MCU clock cycle consumption. The results show that, compared to the existing code submitted to the National Institute of Standard and Technology (NIST) PQC standardization competition, the required MCU clock cycle is reduced by an average of 52%, and the memory used is reduced by approximately 77%. In this way, we verified that the RLizard KEM works well in our low-end IoT environments.