Research Article

PIPELINED AES-CTR FOR UNDERWATER RGB IMAGE ENCRYPTION/DECRYPTION ON FPGA

Volume: 14 Number: 2 June 30, 2026
TR EN

PIPELINED AES-CTR FOR UNDERWATER RGB IMAGE ENCRYPTION/DECRYPTION ON FPGA

Abstract

This paper presents a pipelined FPGA implementation of the AES algorithm in the Counter (CTR) mode, specifically optimized for underwater RGB image encryption and decryption. Underwater imaging often suffers from limited bandwidth, so it requires secure transmission in real-time applications. These applications include, but are not limited to, autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs) and remotely operated vehicles (ROVs). The proposed design achieves high throughput while maintaining low latency. By utilizing a multistage pipeline architecture implemented in Verilog, four pipeline configurations were developed and evaluated, ranging from a non-pipelined baseline to a fully pipelined design. The non-pipelined implementation achieves 1.16 Gb/s with 3106 LUTs and 2193 FFs. Moreover, the 2-stage and 6-stage versions reach 2.56 Gb/s and 6.40 Gb/s, respectively, while the fully pipelined implementation attains 12.80 Gb/s at a clock frequency of 100 MHz, utilizing 6403 LUTs and 2943 FFs. These results demonstrate the efficiency of deep pipelining and provide a favourable balance between performance and resource utilization compared to prior AES implementations.

Keywords

Supporting Institution

TUBITAK

Project Number

121C126

Ethical Statement

All data and methods used in this study were conducted in accordance with academic ethics and research principles. The study did not contain plagiarism, forgery, distortion, republication, slicing, unfair authorship, or other ethical violations. The article does not contain any conflicts of interest.

Thanks

This work was supported by The Scientific and Technological Research Council of Turkiye (TUBITAK), Department of Science Fellowships and Grant Programmes (BIDEB) through the 2232-B International Fellowship for Early Stage Researchers Program under Grant Number 121C126.

References

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  2. Arul Murugan, C., Karthigaikumar, P. and Sathya Priya, S., 2020. FPGA implementation of hardware architecture with AES encryptor using sub-pipelined S-box techniques for compact applications. Automatika: časopis za automatiku, mjerenje, elektroniku, računarstvo i komunikacije, 61(4), pp.682-693.
  3. Blazhevski, D., Bozhinovski, A., Stojchevska, B. and Pachovski, V., 2013. Modes of operation of the AES algorithm, pp.212-216.
  4. Busacca, F., Galluccio, L., Palazzo, S., Panebianco, A., Qi, Z. and Pompili, D., 2024. Adaptive versus predictive techniques in underwater acoustic communication networks. Computer Networks, 252, p.110679.
  5. Daoud, L., Hussein, F. and Rafla, N., 2019. High-level synthesis optimization of aes-128/192/256 encryption algorithms. International Journal of Computers and Their Applications, 29, pp.129-136.
  6. Daoud, L., Hussein, F. and Rafla, N., 2019. Optimization of advanced encryption standard (aes) using vivado high level synthesis (hls).
  7. González-García, J., Gómez-Espinosa, A., Cuan-Urquizo, E., García-Valdovinos, L.G., Salgado-Jiménez, T. and Escobedo Cabello, J.A., 2020. Autonomous underwater vehicles: Localization, navigation, and communication for collaborative missions. Applied sciences, 10(4), p.1256.
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Details

Primary Language

English

Subjects

Embedded Systems

Journal Section

Research Article

Publication Date

June 30, 2026

Submission Date

November 6, 2025

Acceptance Date

April 24, 2026

Published in Issue

Year 2026 Volume: 14 Number: 2

APA
Akel, A. E., Aydin, A. T., Akgül, B., & Özakın, A. (2026). PIPELINED AES-CTR FOR UNDERWATER RGB IMAGE ENCRYPTION/DECRYPTION ON FPGA. Mühendislik Bilimleri Ve Tasarım Dergisi, 14(2), 182-194. https://doi.org/10.21923/jesd.1818679
AMA
1.Akel AE, Aydin AT, Akgül B, Özakın A. PIPELINED AES-CTR FOR UNDERWATER RGB IMAGE ENCRYPTION/DECRYPTION ON FPGA. JESD. 2026;14(2):182-194. doi:10.21923/jesd.1818679
Chicago
Akel, Ahmet Ekrem, Ahmet Taha Aydin, Berke Akgül, and Aslıhan Özakın. 2026. “PIPELINED AES-CTR FOR UNDERWATER RGB IMAGE ENCRYPTION DECRYPTION ON FPGA”. Mühendislik Bilimleri Ve Tasarım Dergisi 14 (2): 182-94. https://doi.org/10.21923/jesd.1818679.
EndNote
Akel AE, Aydin AT, Akgül B, Özakın A (June 1, 2026) PIPELINED AES-CTR FOR UNDERWATER RGB IMAGE ENCRYPTION/DECRYPTION ON FPGA. Mühendislik Bilimleri ve Tasarım Dergisi 14 2 182–194.
IEEE
[1]A. E. Akel, A. T. Aydin, B. Akgül, and A. Özakın, “PIPELINED AES-CTR FOR UNDERWATER RGB IMAGE ENCRYPTION/DECRYPTION ON FPGA”, JESD, vol. 14, no. 2, pp. 182–194, June 2026, doi: 10.21923/jesd.1818679.
ISNAD
Akel, Ahmet Ekrem - Aydin, Ahmet Taha - Akgül, Berke - Özakın, Aslıhan. “PIPELINED AES-CTR FOR UNDERWATER RGB IMAGE ENCRYPTION DECRYPTION ON FPGA”. Mühendislik Bilimleri ve Tasarım Dergisi 14/2 (June 1, 2026): 182-194. https://doi.org/10.21923/jesd.1818679.
JAMA
1.Akel AE, Aydin AT, Akgül B, Özakın A. PIPELINED AES-CTR FOR UNDERWATER RGB IMAGE ENCRYPTION/DECRYPTION ON FPGA. JESD. 2026;14:182–194.
MLA
Akel, Ahmet Ekrem, et al. “PIPELINED AES-CTR FOR UNDERWATER RGB IMAGE ENCRYPTION DECRYPTION ON FPGA”. Mühendislik Bilimleri Ve Tasarım Dergisi, vol. 14, no. 2, June 2026, pp. 182-94, doi:10.21923/jesd.1818679.
Vancouver
1.Ahmet Ekrem Akel, Ahmet Taha Aydin, Berke Akgül, Aslıhan Özakın. PIPELINED AES-CTR FOR UNDERWATER RGB IMAGE ENCRYPTION/DECRYPTION ON FPGA. JESD. 2026 Jun. 1;14(2):182-94. doi:10.21923/jesd.1818679