An Elliptic Curve Cryptography (ECC) Primer
And when you need it, you need it. For many situations in distributed network environments, asymmetric cryptography is a must during communications. If you're taming key distribution issues with a public key infrastructure (PKI), you're using asymmetric cryptography. If you're designing or employing any kind of network protocol or application requiring secure communications, to come up with a practical solution, you're going to have to use asymmetric cryptography.
This paper describes elliptic curve cryptography in greater depthhow it works, and why it offers these advantages over other asymmetric cryptography options. It will begin by discussing the larger subject of asymmetric cryptography in general.