RFID Security : Tiny Encryption Algorithm And Authentication Protocols

Abstract

With recent advancement in Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) technology, in addition to reduction in cost of each unit, security has emerged as a major concern. Since an RFID tag has limited resources like memory, power and processing capabilities, authentication must be provided by encryption and decryption procedures that are lightweight consuming minimal resources. This report investigates some relevant RFID encryption algorithms and their possible implementations with respect to security, cost and performance. A survey and brief comparison of the algorithms are performed and the Tiny Encryption Algorithm (TEA) is selected as a feasible solution for encryption and decryption with an acceptable level of security. TEA is implemented on an FPGA (Field Programmable Gate Array) platform. After investigating several state-of-the-art authentication approaches, two protocols are designed incorporating TEA and implemented using VHDL. Simulations corroborate the functionality of the protocols and the two techniques are compared in terms of timing, cost, security and performance. Potential improvements to enhance the security and strengthen RF communication during authentication are explored.