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An experimental study on Performance Evaluation of Asymmetric Encryption

Algorithms

Conference Paper · December 2012

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 Recent Advances in Information Science

An experimental study on Performance Evaluation of Asymmetric

Encryption Algorithms

1
SHAHZADI FARAH, 2M. YOUNAS JAVED, 3AZRA SHAMIM, 4TABASSAM NAWAZ
1,4
Department of Software Engineering,
University of Engineering & Technology, Taxila, Pakistan
2
Dept. of Computer Engineering, CE & ME, National University of Science and Technology,
Islamabad, Pakistan
3
Faculty of Computer Science and Information Technology,
University of Malaya, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

[email protected], [email protected], [email protected],

[email protected]

Abstract: - This paper presents the evaluation of RSA, ElGamal & Pallier asymmetric encryption algorithms.
Encryption algorithms provide a secure communication over the internet and play main role in any security
system. These algorithms consume a considerable amount of time and resources such as memory, CPU time,
battery power and computation time to encrypt and decrypt data. In this paper, different experiments have been
conducted to compare these algorithms in term of encryption time, decryption time, memory usage and
throughput over variable text file and private key sizes.

Key-Words: -Asymmetric Algorithms, Encryption Time, Decryption Time, Throughput, Encrypted File Size,
Decrypted Files Size

1 Introduction efficient, and simple asymmetric algorithm [4] and

Information security is one of the key challenges in widely known as alternative to RSA. Paillier is
data communication. For secure information and additive homomormphic algorithm and is
communication over public network, different widely known for its semantic security.
cryptographic methods are applied. The This paper presents the implementation and
cryptographic methods are widely classified as comparison of RSA, Elgamal and Paillier for
symmetric and asymmetric. In symmetric methods, variable text files sizes. Our goal is to calculate
encryption and decryption keys are same or encryption time, decryption time, throughput,
decryption key is easily calculated from the encrypted file size, and decrypted file size for each
encryption key. The problem with symmetric algorithm to identify which algorithms outperforms
method is that participants must share a secret key others in term of evaluation parameters.
in a secure way which is difficult [2]. Asymmetric The rest of the paper is organized as follows:
methods solve the problem of key distribution by Section 2 presents literature review. Section 3
using a pair of keys. It is computationally infeasible describes parameters used for the evaluation.
to determine the decryption key given only the Section 4 presents experimental setting and data.
knowledge of cryptographic algorithm and the Results are discussed in section 5 and Section 6
encryption key [2]. concludes the research work.

RSA, Elgamal and Paillier encryption scheme

belongs to asymmetric algorithms. RSA is one of
2 Literature Review
The performance evaluation of different symmetric
the oldest and most widely used encryption
and asymmetric encryption algorithms was
algorithm [3]. In RSA, the key pair is derived from
extensively study in the literature. Seth et. al. [1]
the product of two prime numbers chosen according
conducted a comparative analysis for the
to special rules [1]. Elgamal is fundamental,

ISBN: 978-1-61804-140-1 121

 Recent Advances in Information Science

performance evaluation of symmetric and

asymmetric encryption algorithms i.e. AES, DES • Decryption time (Computation Time/
and RSA in term of computation time, memory Response Time)
usage and output bytes on different file sizes. The The decryption time is considered the time that an
result of their experiments showed that DES encryption algorithm takes to reproduces a plain text
algorithm performed better among others in term of from a cipher text.
encryption time, AES has least memory usage and
RSA algorithm generated least output file. Challa et. • Throughput
al. compared the performance of RSA and NTRU Throughput is equal to total plaintext in bytes
asymmetric algorithms on variable text file sizes encrypted divided by the encryption time [1].
with the key size of 51 bits and 20 bits for Higher the throughput, higher will be the
encryption and decryption process respectively [5]. performance.
They concluded that NTRU performed better in
term of encryption, decryption and authentication • Encrypted File Size
than RSA. Vijayalakshmi et. al. compared the The size of encrypted file is called encrypted file
performance of RSA and Elliptic Curve size.
Cryptosystem (ECC) asymmetric algorithms over
execution time and memory size for encryption and • Decrypted File Size
decryption process with variable word lengths and
The size of decrypted file is called decrypted file
different key sizes. Their results showed the size.
superiority of ECC over RSA in term of execution
time and memory requirement [9].
4 Experimental Setting and Data
Elminaam et. al. conducted various experiment for We performed experiments on Intel(R) Core(TM) 2
performance evaluation of symmetric algorithms i.e. Duo CPU 2.09 GHz processor with 4 GM of RAM
AES (Rijndael), DES, 3DES, RC2, Blowfish, and on Windows XP operating system. Compiler used
RC6 encryption in term of energy, power for experiments is Python(x,y) 2.7.2.3. We carried
consumption, different key sizes, data types and out experiments on 68 KB, 105 KB, 124 KB, and
packet size in [7]. Their results showed that 235 KB text file sizes. In this paper private key bit
Blowfish performed better than other encryption sizes are selected as suggested by NIST
algorithms on variable packet size. Elminaam et. al. recommendation. Private key size of 1024 bit for
compared the performance of these algorithms on RSA, 160 bits for ElGamal and Paillier was used for
different sizes of data blocks, different data types, experimental purpose because RSA provides same
battery power consumption, data transmission over amount of security on 1024 bit key size as provided
wireless network [8] and experimental results by Elgamal and Paillier on 160 bit.
showed that Blowfish again performed better on
variable packet size. Mittal conducted a study to 5 Results and Discussion
compare the performance in term of processing time Figure 1 shows the comparison of encryption time
and throughput of symmetric algorithms i.e. DES, in seconds among RSA, ElGamal, and Paillier. The
3DES, and AES (Rijndael) algorithms over different secondary Y-axis represents the encryption time of
in [6]. AES (Rijndael) algorithm has shown lesser Paillier because of huge time difference of Paillier
execution time as compared to other algorithms and as compared to RSA and ElGamal. RSA showed
Processor 2.00 GHz (dual) showed best throughput better performance over ElGamal and Paillier in
over other hardware processors. term of encryption time and ElGamal showed better
performance over RSA and Paillier in term of
3 Evaluation Parameters decryption time as shown in Figure 2.
Authors selected following parameters for
evaluation of RSA, ElGamal & Pallier asymmetric
encryption algorithms for both encryption and
decryption schemes.
• Encryption time (Computation Time/
Response Time)
The encryption time is considered the time that an
encryption algorithm takes to produces a cipher text
from a plain text.[1]

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 Recent Advances in Information Science

Figure 1: Comparison of Encryption Time among RSA, Figure 3: Throughput of RSA, ELGamal and Paillier for
ElGamal and Paillier Encryption Process

Figure 4: Throughput of RSA, ElGamal and Paillier on

Decryption Process
Figure 2: Comparison of decryption Time among RSA,
ElGamal and Paillier
Figure 5 and Figure 6 shows the comparison
encryption and decryption file sizes among RSA,
Figure 3 shows throughput of RSA, ElGamal and ElGamal and Paillier. Paillier showed worst result in
Paillier for encryption process and Figure 4 shows encrypted file size and its encrypted file size
throughput of RSA, ElGamal and Paillier for increased exponentially with increase of input file
decryption process. It is concluded from Figure 3 size. The best result was shown by RSA. ElGamal,
and Figure 4 that RSA showed better throughput RSA, and Paillier showed same exponential increase
over ElGamal and Paillier in encryption process and in decrypted file size with increase in input file size.
Elgamal showed better throughput over RSA and
Paillier in decryption process.

ISBN: 978-1-61804-140-1 123

 Recent Advances in Information Science

for encrypted files. Decrypted files sizes of all

the three algorithms chosen for this paper, are
equivalent to the original file sizes. The overall
performance of RSA is better over ElGamal and
Paillier in term of parameters used in this work.

References:

[1] Shashi Mehrotra Seth, Rajan Mishra,

Comparative Analysis Of Encryption
Algorithms For Data Communication, IJCST
Vol. 2, Issue 2, June 2011
[2] Evaluation Of Performance Characteristics Of
Cryptosystem Using Text Files
[3] R.L.Rivest, A.Shamir, L.Adleman “A method
for obtaining digital signatures and Public-Key
Cryptosystems”, Communications of the ACM
Figure 5: Comparison of Encrypted File Size by RSA,
21 (1978), 120-126.
ElGamal and Paillier [4] Myungsun Kim, Jihye Kim, And Jung Hee
Cheon, Compress Multiple Ciphertexts Using
Elgamal Encryption Schemes
[5] Narasimham Challa and Jayaram Pradhan,
Performance Analysis of Public key
Cryptographic Systems RSA and NTRU,
IJCSNS International Journal of Computer
Science and Network Security, VOL.7 No.8,
August 2007
[6] Mohit Mittal, Performance Evaluation of
Cryptographic Algorithms, International
Journal of Computer Applications (0975 –
8887) Volume 41– No.7, March 2012
[7] Diaa Salama Abd Elminaam, Hatem Mohamed
Abdual Kader, and Mohiy Mohamed Hadhoud,
Evaluating The Performance of Symmetric
Encryption Algorithms, International Journal of
Network Security, Vol.10, No.3, PP.216–222,
May 2010
Figure 6: Comparison of Encrypted File Size by RSA, [8] Diaa Salama Abdul. Elminaam, Hatem M.
ElGamal and Paillier Abdul Kader and Mohie M. Hadhoud,
Performance Evaluation of Symmetric
5 Conclusions Encryption Algorithms on Power Consumption
This research work presents the comparison of RSA,
for Wireless Devices, International Journal of
ElGamal & Pallier in term of encryption time,
Computer Theory and Engineering, Vol. 1, No.
decryption time, throughput, encrypted file size and
4, October, 2009 1793-8201
decrypted file size. Different experiments were
[9] P.R.Vijayalakshmi, K. Bommanna Raja,
conducted for comparison of these algorithms and it
Performance Analysis of RSA and ECC in
is concluded that RSA performed better in term of
Identity-Based Authenticated New Multiparty
encryption time, ElGamal in term of decryption
Key Agreement Protocol, International
time. Throughput is the most important Conference on Computing, Communication
parameter that demonstrates the performance of and Applications (ICCCA), 22-24 Feb. 2012,
any algorithm. It is observed that throughput of pp 1-5
RSA is better in encryption process than all others
and ElGamal is better over others in decryption
process. RSA requires least amount of storage space

ISBN: 978-1-61804-140-1 124

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