Modified RC4 variants and their performance analysis

Abstract

Two modified RC4 variants have been discussed in this paper. First, the weaknesses in the basic RC4 algorithm have been identified and further, the weaknesses have been removed in the two proposed algorithms. The implementation of basic RC4, RC4+ and the proposed variants RC4-1 and RC4-2 has been carried out in both C++ and VHDL. The performance analysis has been done in terms of encryption time, security, and resource usage. From the obtained numerical values, it is found that the proposed algorithms provide better security without increasing the encryption time of the basic RC4 algorithm.