Implementation of high performance advanced encryption standard-128 for WiMAX application on FPGA

Worldwide interoperability for microwave access (WiMAX) which is also known as IEEE 802.16 standard for broadband wireless access continues to gain popularity as a technology with a significant market potential. This development makes wireless security a very serious concern. Advanced encryption standard (AES) has been widely used for protection in WiMAX application. This study focuses on the implementation of high performance AES-128 algorithm with 128-bit cipher key on field programmable gate array (FPGA) in terms of architectural and throughput differences as well as power consumption rates. Three different AES-128 designs, including the proposed AES-128 design, are introduced and evaluated. Xilinx Virtex5 FPGA is utilized for implementation and verification purposes. Results show that with Virtex5 FPGA, the proposed AES-128 design reduces the slices by 2% and increases the throughput by 95% compared with the reference designs. The proposed AES-128 design also reduces total power consumption by 6% with Virtex5 FPGA.