These algorithms will keep car-to-car communications safe
09-05-2016 | By Paul Whytock
ASIC, FPGA and IP specialists EnSilica has designed and launched eSi-ECDSA cryptographic IP to assist with the high security communication and latency requirements of car-to-car (Car2Car) and car-to-infrastructure (Car2x) applications that are essential in the development of intelligent transport systems.
This cryptographic IP complies with the IEEE 1609.2 and ETSI TS 103 97 standards that define the security layers in the Car2x communication protocols where cryptographic algorithms are the principal element employed to protect against information security risks involving confidentiality, integrity, availability and authenticity.
Of particular importance is the Elliptic curve digital signature algorithm (ECDSA) is specified for message authentication, the elliptic curve integrated encryption scheme (ECIES) for asymmetric encryption and the advanced encryption standard (AES) for symmetric encryption.
The company’s eSi-ECDSA is an ASIC acceleration core that has been designed to deliver the high level of message-signature verifications required by Car2x ECDSA message authentication, where practical requirements range between 400 to 4000 verifications/sec, depending on the message beaconing rate (1Hz to 10Hz) and expected worst case vehicle traffic volumes on the road.
This, says the company, overcomes the slow verification rates of traditional embedded software cryptographic algorithm implementations which typically only deliver message-signature verifications in the order of tens/sec. EnSilica's eSi-ECDSA achieves this by off-loading the ECDSA signing and verification operations so that the processor is only required to load and read back results via an APB or AHB interface.
In addition, the eSi-ECDSA core features a range of lower level ECC operations which allow the acceleration of ECIES asymmetric encryption, flexible real-time key selection, support for all commonly standardised curves like NIST, SEC2 and Brainpool, and resistance against timing/power analysis attacks.
