The recent expansion of the Internet of Things is creating a new world of smart devices in which security implications are very significant. Besides the claimed security level, the IoT devices are usually featured with constrained resources, such as low computation capability, low memory, and limited battery. Lightweight cryptographic primitives are proposed in the context of IoT while considering the trade-off between security guarantee and good performance. In this paper, we present optimized hardware, lightweight cryptographic designs, of 32-bit datapath, LED 64/128, SIMON 64/128, and SIMECK 64/128 algorithms, for constrained devices. Our proposed designs are investigated on Spartan-3, Spartan-6, and Zynq-7000 FPGA platforms in terms of area, speed, efficiency, and power consumption. The proposed designs achieved a high throughput up to 891.99 Mbps, 838.95 Mbps, and 210.13 Mbps for SIMECK 64/128, SIMON 64/128, and LED 64/128 on Zynq-7000, respectively. A deep comparison between our three proposed designs is elaborated on different FPGA families for adequate FPGAs-based application deployment. Test results and security analysis show that not only can our proposed designs achieve good encryption results with high performance and a low reduced cost but also they are secure enough to resist statistical attacks.

This paper introduces a novel approach to addressing the security challenges of the Internet of Things (IoT) by presenting a secure Chaos-based lightweight cryptosystem. The proposed design incorporates a Pseudo-Chaotic Numbers Generator combined with the Speck64/128 lightweight block cipher, to meet the stringent requirements of security and lightweight characteristics. First, we subject the cryptosystem to a battery of rigorous tests, including various cryptanalytics such as brute-force, differential attacks, and statistical attacks. The results of these tests clearly demonstrate the cryptosystem’s exceptional security resilience and its capacity to effectively withstand these attacks. Then, the novel cryptosystem architecture, specifically designed for resource-limited applications like IoT, was implemented on a Xilinx PYNQ-Z2 XC7Z020 FPGA platform, which aligns perfectly with the constraints of IoT devices. The investigation comprises a thorough analysis and evaluation of the developed cryptosystem according to the algorithm complexity and the achieved precision, hardware area, maximum operational frequency, throughput, efficiency, and power consumption. The findings prove the effectiveness of our approach in terms of computational complexity, memory requirements, and power consumption. Eventually, after reviewing and comparing our results to the existing literature, our cryptosystem’s superiority becomes evident. The simulation results and performance analysis show that the proposed Chaos-Based Lightweight Cryptosystem (SCBLC) can be considered an ideal choice for securing communication in IoT devices with limited resources, making significant strides toward enhancing IoT network security.

Lightweight ciphers have been developed to meet the rising need for secure communication in environments with limited resources. These ciphers provide robust encryption while ensuring efficient computation. Our paper introduces a new enhanced PRESENT lightweight cipher that utilizes chaotic systems to enhance its robustness and randomness while retaining the simplicity and compactness of the original cipher. By integrating chaotic maps into the cipher's core components, we improve its resistance against advanced cryptanalysis, such as differential, Salt & Peppers Noise (SPN), and loss data attacks. We also optimize the design for computational efficiency, making it suitable for deployment in devices with limited resources. Through extensive simulations and comparative analyses, we demonstrate the superiority of our enhanced cipher in terms of security and efficiency compared to other state-of-the-art lightweight ciphers. Our research contributes to the advancement of lightweight cryptography and provides a promising solution for secure communication in resource-constrained environments.

The Internet of Things is changing all sectors such as manufacturing, agriculture, city infrastructure, and the automotive industry. All these applications ask for secure processors that can be embedded in the IoT devices. Furthermore, these devices are restricted in terms of computing capabilities, memory, and power consumption. A major challenge is how to meet the need for security in such resource-constrained devices. This paper presents a customized version of LEON3, the ReonV RISCV (Reduced Instruction Set Computer-five) processor, dedicated for IoT applications that has strong effective security mechanisms built in at the design stage. Firstly, efficient lightweight cipher designs are elaborated and validated. Then, the proposed cryptographic instructions (PRESENT and PRINCE) are integrated into the default instruction set architecture of the ReonV processor core. The instruction set extensions (ISE) of lightweight cipher modules can be instantiated in software routines exactly as the instructions of the base architecture. A single instruction is needed to implement a full lightweight cryptographic instruction. The customized ReonV RISCV processor is implemented on a Xilinx FPGA platform and is evaluated for Slice LUTs plus FF-pairs, frequency, and throughput. Obtained results show that our proposed concepts not only can achieve good encryption results with high performance and reduced cost but also are secure enough to resist against the most common attacks.

In order to improve security and efficiency, this study presents a novel lightweight encryption technique that makes use of chaotic systems. Our method creatively combines the new chaotic KLEIN_64 algorithm with the Keccak-256 hash function, offering a solid basis for producing initial values essential for causing chaotic maps during the encryption process. After a deep validation with rigorous NIST testing, our chaotic pseudo random generator, LAC, exhibits excellent reliability and cryptographic robustness. Furthermore, the complexity of the cryptographic round function is improved by incorporating a second chaotic pseudo random generator that combines chaotic LFSR and Skew Tent Maps, thereby fortifying security measures.Designed with resource-limited applications in mind, our approach ensures that the cryptosystem remains both lightweight and efficient, meeting the stringent constraints typical of such environments. The practical feasibility and performance of our approach are extensively evaluated through FPGA implementation on the Zybo 7Z010 platform. Our implementation achieves a remarkable throughput of 2.820 Gbps while maintaining optimal resource utilization and efficiency. Extensive experimental results confirm the superior security of our cryptosystem, with correlation tests, entropy measurement, and histogram analysis showcasing robustness against statistical attacks. Moreover, the cryptosystem shows little fluctuation in the Unified Average Changing Intensity (UACI) and Non-Linear Pixel Change Rate (NPCR), confirming its resistance to differential attacks. Overall, our technique advances lightweight cryptography by providing a robust and efficient solution to modern cybersecurity challenges. In particular, our approach is well-suited for applications with limited resources, ensuring that security is maintained without compromising on performance or efficiency, thus fulfilling the needs of modern, constrained environments.

Agriculture in arid and semi-arid regions faces critical challenges of water scarcity, irregular rainfall, and the high cost of monitoring systems. Most existing Internet of Things (IoT) platforms for precision agriculture are expensive, energy-intensive, and rely on cellular or grid connectivity, which limits their adoption by smallholder farmers. To overcome these issues, this work presents a hybrid Espressif peer-to-peer protocol (ESP-NOW) / long range (LoRa) IoT monitoring system. The architecture combines ESP8266 sensor nodes, an ESP32 primary aggregator, and a Raspberry Pi 4 gateway, integrating ESP-NOW for local ultra-low-power communication and LoRa for long-range data transmission. In operation, the ESP8266 nodes periodically acquire environmental data and send it via ESP-NOW to the ESP32 primary, which aggregates the packets and forwards them through LoRa to the Raspberry Pi gateway for storage, visualization, and analysis. All sensor data are stored in a MySQL database and visualized in real time through a web dashboard. The sensing modules were calibrated under laboratory conditions using reference instruments to ensure accuracy, achieving correlation coefficients ( $R^{2}$ ) between 0.95 and 0.97. Field deployment in a Tunisian wheat plot further confirmed stable performance, with less than 3% nighttime battery discharge and a packet delivery ratio above 95% up to 2 km. Costing under 600 EUR, the proposed system provides a validated, scalable, and affordable IoT solution for precision agriculture in resource-constrained environments.