TWC: Small: Accelerating Cryptographic Protocols with Reconfigurable Hardware

这个项目的动机是几个观察。首先，一些密码协议最近已经从纯理论过渡到概念证明实例化。其次，在这些实例中，真正实用性的剩余障碍似乎可以通过硬件加速来解决。一个例子是可验证的计算（一方被给予另一方正确计算的保证）;在这种协议中，计算使用电路形式表示，并且存在可并行的密码运算（模幂运算等）。其他协议，包括多方计算、函数加密等，有类似的开销。鉴于这一动机，该项目探讨了加密协议的混合软件和硬件平台的开发，优化和应用。该项目正在通过借鉴集成电路设计和测试方法，开发可重新配置硬件上的并行化新技术;该项目还在探索硬件和软件接口，使软件和硬件加速器之间能够进行有效的交互。方法包括软硬件设计、实现、建模性能和成本，以及严格的实验和经验评估，项目成果包括一类密码协议（可验证计算、多方计算、函数加密等）适合实际使用。因此，该项目的成功使一系列计算应用更加安全，包括云计算和高保证计算。结果通过同行评审的出版物，并通过网站上发布的代码和实验配置传播。 该项目包括本科生参与研究。

This project is motivated by several observations. First, a number of cryptographic protocols have recently made the transition from pure theory to proof-of-concept instantiations. Second, in these instantiations, the remaining obstacles to genuine practicality seem amenable to hardware acceleration. An example is verifiable computation (one party is given assurance that another computed correctly); in this kind of protocol, computations are represented using a circuit formalism, and there are parallelizable cryptographic operations (modular exponentiation, etc.). Other protocols, including multi-party computation, functional encryption, etc., have analogous overheads.Given this motivation, the project explores the development, optimization, and application of hybrid software and hardware platforms for cryptographic protocols. The project is developing new techniques for parallelization on reconfigurable hardware, by drawing on integrated circuit design and testing methods; the project is also exploring hardware and software interfaces that enable efficient interaction between software and hardware accelerators. The methods include software and hardware design, implementation, modeling performance and costs, and rigorous experimental and empirical evaluation.Project results include a class of cryptographic protocols (verifiable computation, multi-party computation, functional encryption, etc.) suitable for practical use. The project's success thus makes a range of computing applications safer, including cloud computing and high assurance computing. Results are disseminated through peer-reviewed publications, and through code and experimental configurations released on a Web site. The project includes undergraduate involvement in research.