Software implementation of pairing-based cryptography on sensor networks using the MSP430 microcontroller

Abstract

The software implementation of cryptographic schemes for wireless sensor networks poses a challenge due to the limited capabilites of the platform. Nevertheless, its feasibility has been shown in recent papers. In this work we describe a software implementation of pairing-based cryptography and elliptic curve cryptography for the MSP430 microcontroller, which is used in some wireless sensors including the Tmote Sky and TelosB. We have implemented the pairing computation for the MNT and BN curves over prime fields along with the ECDSA scheme. The main result of this work is a platform-specific optimization for the multiplication and reduction routines that leads to a 28% speedup in the field multiplication compared to the best known timings published. This optimization consequently improves the speed of both pairing computation and point multiplication. © 2009 Springer-Verlag.