Formal apparatus for measurement of lightweight protocols

Lightweight protocols are an important topic in the area of computer communications. With the proliferation of security services not only ordinary communication protocols, but also cryptographic protocols, i.e. security services, have become a subject of research into possible appropriate lightweight solutions. At first glance it may seem surprising, but the evidence suggests that there is a permanent need for lightweight protocols. And this need is ever increasing, due to the gap between desktop (and other ordinary computing devices) and mobile wireless devices that have inherently limited resources. However, the notion of lightweight protocol has not been formally addressed in the literature, which is the purpose of this paper. A formal model that can be used to evaluate lightweight properties of protocols is presented and the appropriate metrics are introduced. Despite the fact that the model and the metrics target weak processing devices, they can be deployed for ordinary computing environments and may present a methodology for evaluation of lightweight cryptographic protocols in standardization processes.