- This paper introduces a custom framework for benchmarking software implementations from the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) Lightweight Cryptography (LWC) project on embedded devices. We present the design and core functions of the framework and apply it to various NIST LWC authenticated encryption with associated data (AEAD) ciphers. Altogether, we evaluate the speedThis paper introduces a custom framework for benchmarking software implementations from the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) Lightweight Cryptography (LWC) project on embedded devices. We present the design and core functions of the framework and apply it to various NIST LWC authenticated encryption with associated data (AEAD) ciphers. Altogether, we evaluate the speed of 213 submitted algorithm vari-ants on four different microcontroller units (MCUs), including 32 bit ARM and 8 bit AVR architectures. To allow a more meaningful comparison, we also conduct code size tests on all four boards and RAM utilization tests on one test platform.…
