The Embedded Microprocessor Benchmark Consortium (EEMBC®) today announced its efforts on a benchmark to ensure optimum efficiency of security implementations in Internet of Things (IoT) devices. This new benchmark, currently in development within EEMBC's IoT Security working group, aims to provide an industry-created and standardized tool for application developers to quickly, accurately, and equitably compare the performance and energy efficiency of security solutions targeted at IoT end-point applications -- those "Things."
"The market for IoT security products is currently small but is growing rapidly as both consumers and businesses use connected devices in ever greater numbers and realize their vulnerabilities," said Ruggero Contu, research director at Gartner. "Gartner forecasts that 6.4 billion connected things will be in use worldwide in 2016, up 30 percent from 2015, and will reach 11.4 billion by 2018. However, considerable variation exists among different industry sectors as a result of different levels of prioritization and security awareness."
"Security is a priority of application developers, though they are typically concerned that implementing security functions within their IoT devices will hurt performance and lower battery life," said EEMBC president, Markus Levy. "Therefore, a critical goal of our new benchmark will be to quantify the latency and energy impact of implementing security to allow developers to select the optimal combination of microcontroller, hardware, and/or software security products for their application."
The EEMBC IoT Security benchmark will be rolled out in phases. The first phase, planned for beta release in Q1 2017, will contain tests to evaluate a variety of standalone security functions such as SHA256, AES, and ECC. The benchmark will enable EEMBC members to implement these algorithms on their microcontrollers using software libraries or hardware accelerators, whichever yields the best-in-class balance of performance, energy, and cost.
The EEMBC IoT Security working group is co-chaired by Mike Borza (Member of Technical Staff, Security IP, Synopsys) and Ruud Derwig (Member of Technical Staff, Processor Solutions, Synopsys). Borza says, "In subsequent phases of the IoT Security benchmark, the working group plans to combine the standalone functions into specific IoT profiles that will allow users to better see, control, and optimize the impact of security at the system level." The group's modular approach also makes it easier for users to take advantage of optimized security implementations, such as cryptographic processors or modules."
The EEMBC IoT Security benchmark will complement the EEMBC Connect benchmark, also in development. Connect is being built to reliably determine the combined energy consumption of a system, taking into consideration the real-world effects of sensor inputs and communication (e.g. Bluetooth®, Wi-Fi®). Current active working group members include Analog Devices, ARM, C-Sky Microsystems, Flex, Intel, Microchip, Nordic Semiconductor, NXP, Redpine Signals, Renesas, Silicon Labs, STMicroelectronics, Synopsys, and Texas Instruments.
EEMBC encourages vendors and manufacturers to join the consortium's working groups to contribute their expertise and needs to the definition and development of its next-generation benchmark suites. To join EEMBC, contact Markus Levy.
