Public Key Based Protocols–EC Crypto

Elliptic curve cryptography (ECC) is extensively applied in various security protocols for authentication and key management. ECC is a public key or asymmetric key cryptographic approach which is based on elliptic curve theory. ECC was introduced to minimize computational costs while providing equal and faster layers of security than other familiar operations (such as modular exponentiation) and with smaller keys. The technique of ECC has numerous applications in authentication protocols concerning RFIDs, digital signatures, wireless sensor networks, smart cards, and other authentication techniques. In this chapter, we describe the utilization of ECC for designing security protocols in terms of authentication, key establishment, signcryption, and secure group communication.