Design, Implementation, and Analysis of GSM Stream Cipher: Software Simulators vs Real Test Bed - FPGA

With the increase in wireless communication technology, encryption of information sent has become a major concern. This involves both the software level and hardware level encryption. GSM was the first cellular system that paid attention to secure mobile communication. Before the advent of GSM the cellular system had no particular security. The GSM voice calls are encrypted using a family of algorithms collectively A5 all of which are currently badly broken. This paper covers the software simulation of A5/1 algorithm and the complexity of various simulators used. As per the analysis serious security weakness are found in A5/1 algorithm. These simulation work as a base for improving the security of A5/1 algorithm. The justification of any enhancement to algorithm lies in effective simulation of enhancement. Thus, this paper gives comparative analysis of various simulation techniques. NIST - Security Test suite is used for cryptographic analysis of the algorithm.