An ECC processor for IoT using Edwards curves and DFT modular multiplication

Abstract

In this work, an elliptic curve cryptography (ECC) processor is proposed to be used in the Internet of Things (IoT) devices. The ECC processor is designed based on Edwards curves defined over the finite prime fields GF((213 - 1)(13)), GF((2(17) - 1)(17) THORN, and GF((2(19) - 1)(19)). Modular multiplication in the proposed ECC processor is carried out in the frequency domain using a Discrete Fourier Transform (DFT) modular multiplier. Different base field adders and base field multipliers are designed and utilized in the design of the DFT modular multiplier. The ECC processor is described and functionally tested using the VHDL language and the simulation tool in the Xilinx ISE14.2. Furthermore, the ECC processor is synthesized using the synthesis tool in the Xilinx ISE14.2, targeting the Virtex-5 FPGA family. Our synthesis results show that the proposed ECC processor achieves higher speed with minor area penalty compared to the similar work in the literature.