Computational Cost Analysis of Symmetric and Asymmetric Cryptographic Algorithms in Real-time Applications for an Optimized Hybrid Approach that Balances Speed and Security

Abstract

Real-time communication systems increasingly depend on cryptographic mechanisms that offer both strong security guarantees and low computational overhead. This study presents a comparative computational cost analysis of symmetric and asymmetric cryptographic algorithms within real-time application contexts. Using representative algorithms such as AES for symmetric encryption and RSA/ECC for asymmetric encryption the research evaluates processing time, memory usage, key generation latency, and throughput under varying data sizes and operational constraints. The findings show that symmetric cryptography provides significantly lower computational cost and higher throughput, making it more suitable for continuous data encryption in latency sensitive environments. In contrast, asymmetric cryptography, while offering stronger key management and non-repudiation features, incurs higher computational overhead and is therefore better suited for initial authentication, key exchange, and digital signatures rather than bulk data encryption. The study concludes that a hybrid cryptographic approach, leveraging the strengths of both paradigms, offers an optimal balance between security and performance for real-time systems.