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Evaluating Lightweight Cryptographic Standards for IoT: Design, Metrics, and Security Insights

by Adarsh Jiju David, Alan James Robert, Aswin Mammen, Eldhose Babichan, Sandhya C.P.
journal cover thumbnail

International Journal of Computer Applications
Foundation of Computer Science (FCS), NY, USA
Volume 187 - Number 55
Year of Publication: 2025
Authors: Adarsh Jiju David, Alan James Robert, Aswin Mammen, Eldhose Babichan, Sandhya C.P.
10.5120/ijca2025925931

Adarsh Jiju David, Alan James Robert, Aswin Mammen, Eldhose Babichan, Sandhya C.P. . Evaluating Lightweight Cryptographic Standards for IoT: Design, Metrics, and Security Insights. International Journal of Computer Applications. 187, 55 ( Nov 2025), 12-17. DOI=10.5120/ijca2025925931

@article{ 10.5120/ijca2025925931,
author = { Adarsh Jiju David, Alan James Robert, Aswin Mammen, Eldhose Babichan, Sandhya C.P. },
title = { Evaluating Lightweight Cryptographic Standards for IoT: Design, Metrics, and Security Insights },
journal = { International Journal of Computer Applications },
issue_date = { Nov 2025 },
volume = { 187 },
number = { 55 },
month = { Nov },
year = { 2025 },
issn = { 0975-8887 },
pages = { 12-17 },
numpages = {9},
url = { https://ijcaonline.org/archives/volume187/number55/evaluating-lightweight-cryptographic-standards-for-iot-design-metrics-and-security-insights/ },
doi = { 10.5120/ijca2025925931 },
publisher = {Foundation of Computer Science (FCS), NY, USA},
address = {New York, USA}
}
%0 Journal Article
%1 2025-11-18T21:10:54.402082+05:30
%A Adarsh Jiju David
%A Alan James Robert
%A Aswin Mammen
%A Eldhose Babichan
%A Sandhya C.P.
%T Evaluating Lightweight Cryptographic Standards for IoT: Design, Metrics, and Security Insights
%J International Journal of Computer Applications
%@ 0975-8887
%V 187
%N 55
%P 12-17
%D 2025
%I Foundation of Computer Science (FCS), NY, USA
Abstract

The rapid growth of Internet of Things (IoT) applications in domains such as healthcare, industrial systems, smart environments, and defence requires secure communication for devices, even when they operate with very low power, limited storage, or slow processors. Traditional cryptographic algorithms such as AES, although secure, demand significant processing power and hardware resources, making them unsuitable for constrained platforms. This challenge motivates the adoption of lightweight cryptography, which is specifically designed to deliver strong protection with minimal resource usage. This paper presents a survey of lightweight cryptographic algorithms tailored for IoT and embedded environments, analyzing their characteristics based on parameters such as block size, key size, number of rounds, throughput, and gate equivalents. Drawing on recent benchmarking studies and comparative evaluations, it highlights design trade-offs, security considerations, and implementation challenges. From this analysis, it is observed that lightweight algorithms achieve a more favorable balance of efficiency, robustness, and scalability, offering valuable guidance for selecting optimal cryptographic solutions in resource-constrained IoT deployments.

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Index Terms

Computer Science
Information Sciences

Keywords

IoT Lightweight block ciphers PRESENT TEA LED ASCON SPECK SIMON KATAN LEA

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