Lightweight Cryptography for Internet of Things (IoT): Ascon-based Authentication Efficiency and Performance Analysis on STM32 Microcontroller

The rapid expansion of Internet of Things (IoT) systems has increased the need for secure authentication mechanisms that can operate efficiently on resource-constrained microcontrollers. Conventional security designs often introduce significant computational and memory overhead, which can degrade performance and energy efficiency in low-power embedded nodes. This thesis presents the implementation and evaluation of Ascon-AEAD128, the NIST-standard lightweight authenticated encryption program for IoT authentication on an STM32 microcontroller platform. The proposed design implements a complete authenticated command routine, including payload instruction, encryption/decryption, tag verification, and identity retrieval. To reduce integration uncertainty and isolate overhead sources, the implementation is developed in two stages: (i) a local execution path for deterministic validation and cycle profiling, and (ii) a Wi-Fi integrated HTTP path for network operation hosting Python as client and STM32 as server verification. Simulation results show predictable scale based on payload size and strong timing determinism. In local execution, average authentication latency ranges from 6.838 ms to 117.05 ms at 16 MHz and from 1.707ms to 29.647 ms at 80 MHz for plaintext sizes of 16-1024 bytes. In the Wi-Fi execution at 80 MHz, measured authentication routine latency ranges from 1.420 ms to 3.479 ms for 16-128-byte payloads. Across both settings, results confirm that Ascon-AEAD128 can deliver practical authenticated protection with low overhead on constrained embedded hardware.

Name thesis:degree_name

Master of Science

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Computer and Systems Engineering

Grantor

University of Houston

Year dc:date.issued

2026

Author dc:creator

• Tran, Thao My 2000-

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Chen, Yuhua

Committee members dc:contributor.committeemember

• Mo, Yi-Lung
• Chen, Jinghong

• Lightweight Cryptography
• IoT devices
• IoT authentication
• STM32 microcontroller

Language dc:language.iso

English

Handle dc:identifier.uri

https://hdl.handle.net/10657/21572

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:uh-ir.tdl.org:10657/21572