Abstract Lightweight block ciphers play an indispensable role for the security in the context of pervasive computing. However, the performance of resource-constrained devices can be affected dynamically by the selection of suitable cryptalgorithms, especially for the devices in the resource-constrained devices and/or wireless networks. Thus, in this paper, we study the trade-off between security and performance of several recent top performing lightweight block ciphers for the demand of resource-constrained Industrial Wireless Sensor Networks. Then, the software performance evaluation about these ciphers has been carried out in terms of memory occupation, cycles per byte, throughput, and a relative good comprehensive metric. Moreover, the results of avalanche effect, which shows the possibility to resist possible types of different attacks, are presented subsequently. Our results show that SPECK is the software-oriented lightweight cipher which achieves the best performance in various aspects, and it enjoys a healthy security margin at the same time. Furthermore, PRESENT, which is usually used as a benchmark for newer hardware-oriented lightweight ciphers, shows that the software performance combined with avalanche effect is inadequate when it is implemented. In the real application, there is a need to better understand the resources of dedicated platforms and security requirement, as well as the emphasis and focus. Therefore, this case study can serve as a good reference for the better selection of trade-off between performance and security in constrained environments.
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