Recent Development of Hardware-Based Random Number Generators on FPGA for Cryptography

The most important component in the cryptographic system is the cryptographic keys generator. These keys are generated by a random number generator (RNG) since the security of the cryptographic system depends entirely on the quality of generated keys. This paper summarizes the recent development of FPGA-based hardware efficient and secure RNGs. The main aim of this study is to summarize the knowledge of hardware performance, security strength, and suitability for the cryptographic system from the different classes of RNGs. It discusses the different classes of RNGs, recalls the basic ideas, and provides the details of several well-known RNGs. This work presents a comprehensive discussion on the hardware implementation of RNGs on FPGAs. A complete list of LCGs-based pseudorandom number generators (PRNGs) is presented with deep technical details on their mathematical formation and implementations. Finally, the performance of RNGs with respect to utilization of FPGA resources, frequency, latency, power consumption, security strength using the national institute of statistical testing (NIST), and weaknesses is presented.