Software Encryption

We propose to analyze software encryption as follows:

1.

Speed of encryption
Given the varying processing capabilities of the devices, can they all encrypt or decrypt data at a rate that matches the network bandwidth ?

Proposed graph : Network bandwidth vs CPU speed.
For a particular encryption strategy and for every device we will compute the maximum rate at which encryption can be sustained. See Figure 1.

The points thus obtained will provide an envelope of performance across various devices. For universal encryption to be feasible, the bandwidth lines corresponding to the various network standards like IrDA, Bluetooth, IEEE 802.11 etc., should lie within the envelope.

2.

Power consumed
Given the power rating of the various devices, can all the devices encrypt or decrypt data at a rate that matches the network bandwidth ?

Proposed graph : Bandwidth vs Power.
For a particular encryption strategy and for every device we will compute the maximum rate at which data can be encrypted and transmitted. See Figure 2

The feasibility of universal encryption can be answered as described earlier.

3.

Memory required
This seems to be a critical concern only for smartcards as noted from [Schneier99]. Most implementations seem to require only a few tens to a few hundreds of bytes of smartcard RAM. Hence, we consider a ``memory required'' analysis as a secondary issue.

We plan to perform these experiments for various publicly available encryption standards such as those proposed for AES [Schneier99], eg. Twofish, Serpent etc.