Performance evaluation of symmetric cryptography in embedded systems

We consider the problem of implementing security algorithms into embedded systems deployed in automation applications. Such systems are typically built on embedded microcontrollers with limited resources and as hardware changes may not be possible or convenient, the software based cryptography is a suitable solution. In this paper we present results of performance benchmarks of different software-implemented symmetric cryptography algorithms on 8 and 16-bit microcontroller platforms. The contribution of the work is in comparing performance of different algorithms, embedded microcontroller platforms, effects of optimizations and different implementations.