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Abstract. The Auto-ID Center is developing low-cost radio frequency identification (RFID) based systems with the initial application as next generation bar-codes. We describe RFID technology, summarize our approach and our research, and most importantly, describe the research opportunities in RFID for experts in cryptography and information security. The common theme in low-cost RFID systems is that computation resources are very limited, and all aspects of the RFID system are connected to each other. Understanding these connections and the resulting design trade-offs is an important prerequisite to effectively answering the challenges of security and privacy in low-cost RFID systems.

We present the Colorwave algorithm, a simple, distributed, on-line algorithm for the Reader Collision Problem in Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) systems. RFID systems are increasingly being used in applications, such as those experienced in supply chain management, which require RFID readers to operate in close proximity to one another. Readers physically located near one another may interfere with one another's operation. Such reader collisions must be minimized to ensure the correct operation of the RFID system. The Colorwave algorithm yields on-line solutions that are near the optimal static solutions. The dynamic nature of the algorithm enables the RFID system to automatically adapt to changes in the system and in the operating environment of the system. 1206 0-7803-7802-4/03/$17.00

Abstract. Hummingbird-2 is an encryption algorithm with a 128-bit secret key and a 64-bit initialization vector. Hummingbird-2 optionally produces an authentication tag for each message processed. Like it's predecessor Hummingbird-1, Hummingbird-2 has been targeted for low-end microcontrollers and for hardware implementation in lightweight devices such as RFID tags and wireless sensors. Compared to the previous version of the cipher, and in response to extensive analysis, the internal state has been increased to 128 bits and a flow of entropy from the state to the mixing function has been improved. In this paper we present the Hummingbird-2 algorithm, its design and security arguments, performance analysis on both software and hardware platforms, and timing analysis in relation to the ISO 18000-6C protocol.

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