Atbash cipher design for secure nanocommunication using QCA

Abstract

Quantum dot cellular automata (QCA) are a rising paradigm at the nanotechnology level that seems to be an alternative solution to complementary metal–oxide–semiconductor circuits. QCA have high device density, high switching speed and extremely low power consumption. The hardware architecture of cryptographic systems is a major issue in terms of power dissipation and circuit density in formulating secure nanocomputing channels. Cryptography can be the most promising application of QCA, which has not yet been much explored. This paper describes the design of the Atbash cipher in QCA for the first time. The proposed design requires only a 0·223 µm2 area, six majority gates, nine inverters and four clocking zones and has a latency of 1·25. The proposed circuit consumes very little power and thus can be resistant to power analysis attack against communication networks. During implementation, several issues such as clocking and device density are considered. To evaluate the circuit, an 8-bit sequence of data – that is, 1-byte stream of data – of plain text at a time is used as an input to the proposed circuit. The comparison of simulation results with theoretical knowledge confirms the functional efficiency of the circuit.

Polybius Square in Cryptography: A Brief Review of Literature

“…Some ciphers require the key to produce various transformations and substitutions, depending on the cipher being used [16]. Some of the classical ciphers found in the literature that are still being used today are ADFGX cipher [17]- [19], Affine cipher [19]- [22], Atbash cipher [23], Auto-key cipher [24], Baconian cipher [19], [25], Base64 cipher [26]- [28], Beaufort cipher [19], Caesar cipher [29]- [31], Grille cipher [32], Hill cipher [33], Homophonic Substitution cipher [34], [35], Playfair cipher [36]- [38], Polybius cipher [39], Railfence cipher [40], [41] and more. Among these, the Polybius cipher is considered to be one of the most widely used ciphers.…”

A Novel ASCII Code-based Polybius Square Alphabet Sequencer as Enhanced Cryptographic Cipher for Cyber Security Protection (APSAlpS-3CS)

“…A cipher algorithm is responsible for the encryption and decryption of the data [2]. Some of the classical ciphers found in the literature are ADFGX Cipher [6]- [8], Affine Cipher [8]- [11], Atbash Cipher [12], Auto-key Cipher [13], Baconian Cipher [8], [14], Base64 Cipher [15]- [17], Beaufort Cipher [8], Caesar Cipher [18]- [20], Enigma Machine Cipher [8], Four-square cipher [8], Grille Cipher [21], Hill cipher [22], Homophonic Substitution Cipher [23], [24], Permutation Cipher [8], Playfair Cipher [25]- [27], Polybius Cipher [28]- [32], and Rail fence Cipher [33], [34], among others.…”