High performance hardware implementation of AES using minimal resources

Abstract

Increasing need of data protection in computer networks led to the development of several cryptographic algorithms hence sending data securely over a transmission link is critically important in many applications. Hardware implementation of cryptographic algorithms are physically secure than software implementations since outside attackers cannot modify them. In order to achieve higher performance in today's heavily loaded communication networks, hardware implementation is a wise choice in terms of better speed and reliability. This paper presents the hardware implementation of Advanced Encryption Standard (AES) algorithm using Xilinx-virtex 5 Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA). In order to achieve higher speed and lesser area, Sub Byte operation, Inverse Sub Byte operation, Mix Column operation and Inverse Mix Column operations are designed as Look Up Tables (LUTs) and Read Only Memories (ROMs). This approach gives a throughput of 3.74Gbps utilizing only 1% of total slices in xc5vlx110t-3-ff1136 target device.