Elliptic curve cryptography (ECC) is an asymmetric encryption algorithm and it is one of the most complex public key cryptographic algorithms. Unlike the other asymmetric algorithm, which are based on large prime integers factorization, ECC is based on algebraic structure of elliptic curves.
The primary advantage of ECC over the other algorithms is that it uses smaller key spaces that will have equivalent security with algorithms of larger key spaces. Moreover, this feature makes it more efficient and computationally faster algorithm. Because of these unique features, ECC is the most widely used algorithm in resource constrained applications such as cellphones.