Comparison Research on Digital Signature Algorithms in Mobile Web Services

Mobile Web services are playing an import role in the mobile information system. However, their security is a critical issue cumbering their application and development. The digital signature is the indispensable way to ensure the security of mobile Web services and has great significance in practical applications. This paper studied the most popular digital signature algorithms such as DSA, RSA and ECDSA and compared these algorithms in theory. And the signature algorithms were implemented in Java ME on mobile device emulators, with various VM speeds simulated and different key sizes set. Experimental comparison results of the three signature algorithms were presented and analyzed. The results show that ECDSA is more suitable to generate the signature and RSA is more suitable to verify the signature on mobile devices. And a recommended solution to the digital signature in mobile Web services is derived that it´s to use the 1024-bit RSA scheme when the mobile client is required to verify the signature, and switch to adopt the 160-bit ECDSA scheme when the mobile client is required to become a signer.