Experimental measurements and design guidelines for real-time software encryption in multimedia wireless LANs

To secure interactive multimedia applications in wireless LANs (WLANs), it is pertinent to implement real time cryptographic services. In this paper we evaluate the use of software based encryption algorithms that are implemented in the layer service provider as defined by WinSock 2 for Windows 95/NT. Our measurements show that software implementation of various encryptors can sustain the throughput requirements of interactive multimedia applications for WLANs such as telephone-quality audio, video conferencing, and MPEG video. We present a design methodology that includes guidelines for a secure multimedia system design in terms of the encryption method chosen as a function of required application throughput, system configuration, protocol layers overhead and wireless LAN throughput.