J3Gen: a PRNG for low-cost passive RFID

Melià Seguí, Joan; Garcia-Alfaro, Joaquin; Herrera-Joancomartí, Jordi

doi:http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/s130303816

J3Gen: a PRNG for low-cost passive RFID

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Melià-Seguí J, Garcia-Alfaro J, Herrera-Joancomartí J. J3Gen: a PRNG for low-cost passive RFID. Sensors. 2013 Mar;13(3):3816-30. DOI: 10.3390/s130303816

Abstract

Pseudorandom number generation (PRNG) is the main security tool in low-cost passive radio-frequency identification (RFID) technologies, such as EPC Gen2. We present a lightweight PRNG design for low-cost passive RFID tags, named J3Gen. J3Gen is based on a linear feedback shift register (LFSR) configured with multiple feedback polynomials. The polynomials are alternated during the generation of sequences via a physical source of randomness. J3Gen successfully handles the inherent linearity of LFSR based PRNGs and satisfies the statistical requirements imposed by the EPC Gen2 standard. A hardware implementation of J3Gen is presented and evaluated with regard to different design parameters, defining the key-equivalence security and nonlinearity of the design. The results of a SPICE simulation confirm the power-consumption suitability of the proposal.