Normal Elliptic Bases and Torus-Based Cryptography

We consider representations of algebraic tori $T_n(F_q)$ over finite fields. We make use of normal elliptic bases to show that, for infinitely many squarefree integers $n$ and infinitely many values of $q$, we can encode $m$ torus elements, to a small fixed overhead and to $m$ $\phi(n)$-tuples of $F_q$ elements, in quasi-linear time in $\log q$. This improves upon previously known algorithms, which all have a quasi-quadratic complexity. As a result, the cost of the encoding phase is now negligible in Diffie-Hellman cryptographic schemes.