Chaos-on-a-chip secures data transmission in optical fiber links.

Security in information exchange plays a central role in the deployment of modern communication systems. Besides algorithms, chaos is exploited as a real-time high-speed data encryption technique which enhances the security at the hardware level of optical networks. In this work, compact, fully controllable and stably operating monolithic photonic integrated circuits (PICs) that generate broadband chaotic optical signals are incorporated in chaos-encoded optical transmission systems. Data sequences with rates up to 2.5 Gb/s with small amplitudes are completely encrypted within these chaotic carriers. Only authorized counterparts, supplied with identical chaos generating PICs that are able to synchronize and reproduce the same carriers, can benefit from data exchange with bit-rates up to 2.5Gb/s with error rates below 10(-12). Eavesdroppers with access to the communication link experience a 0.5 probability to detect correctly each bit by direct signal detection, while eavesdroppers supplied with even slightly unmatched hardware receivers are restricted to data extraction error rates well above 10(-3).

[1]  D Lenstra,et al.  New role for nonlinear dynamics and chaos in integrated semiconductor laser technology. , 2007, Physical review letters.

[2]  B Krauskopf,et al.  Delay dynamics of semiconductor lasers with short external cavities: bifurcation scenarios and mechanisms. , 2003, Physical review. E, Statistical, nonlinear, and soft matter physics.

[3]  A Argyris,et al.  Photonic integrated device for chaos applications in communications. , 2008, Physical review letters.

[4]  O. Brox,et al.  Self-organization in semiconductor lasers with ultrashort optical feedback. , 2004, Physical review letters.

[5]  Carroll,et al.  Synchronization in chaotic systems. , 1990, Physical review letters.

[6]  D S Citrin,et al.  Loss of time-delay signature in the chaotic output of a semiconductor laser with optical feedback. , 2007, Optics letters.

[7]  K. Petermann.  External optical feedback phenomena in semiconductor lasers , 1995 .

[8]  P. Colet,et al.  Synchronization of chaotic semiconductor lasers: application to encoded communications , 1996, IEEE Photonics Technology Letters.

[9]  Junji Ohtsubo,et al.  1.5-GHz message transmission based on synchronization of chaos in semiconductor lasers. , 2002, Optics letters.

[10]  Bjarne Tromborg,et al.  Nonlinear dynamics and spectral behavior for an external cavity laser , 1986 .

[11]  R. Toral,et al.  Analysis and characterization of the hyperchaos generated by a semiconductor laser subject to a delayed feedback loop , 2005, IEEE Journal of Quantum Electronics.

[12]  Gilles Brassard,et al.  Experimental Quantum Cryptography , 1990, EUROCRYPT.

[13]  J. Mork,et al.  Synchronization phase diagrams of monolithic colliding pulse-modelocked lasers , 1996, IEEE Photonics Technology Letters.

[14]  J Ohtsubo,et al.  Experimental synchronization of chaotic oscillations in external-cavity semiconductor lasers. , 2000, Optics letters.

[15]  Min Won Lee,et al.  Comparison of closed-loop and open-loop feedback schemes of message decoding using chaotic laser diodes. , 2003, Optics letters.

[16]  Roy,et al.  Communication with chaotic lasers , 1998, Science.

[17]  Mikhail P. Fedoruk,et al.  Statistics of errors in fibre communication lines with a phase-modulation format and optical phase conjugation , 2011 .

[18]  Carroll,et al.  Driving systems with chaotic signals. , 1991, Physical review. A, Atomic, molecular, and optical physics.

[19]  Laurent Larger,et al.  Cracking chaos-based encryption systems ruled by nonlinear time delay differential equations , 2003 .

[20]  S Tang,et al.  Message encoding-decoding at 2.5 Gbits/s through synchronization of chaotic pulsing semiconductor lasers. , 2001, Optics letters.

[21]  R. Lang,et al.  External optical feedback effects on semiconductor injection laser properties , 1980 .

[22]  H. Weinfurter,et al.  Experimental Demonstration of Free-Space Decoy-State Quantum Key Distribution over 144 km , 2007, 2007 European Conference on Lasers and Electro-Optics and the International Quantum Electronics Conference.

[23]  Valerio Annovazzi-Lodi,et al.  Cryptography using optical chaos / Cryptographie par chaos optique Fiberoptics setup for chaoticcryptographic communications , 2004 .

[24]  Laurent Larger,et al.  Encryption using chaotic dynamics for optical telecommunications , 2004 .

[25]  Junji Ohtsubo,et al.  Characteristics of a semiconductor laser with external feedback , 1994 .

[26]  F Kannari,et al.  Experiments on chaos synchronization in two separate microchip lasers. , 1999, Optics letters.

[27]  M Radziunas,et al.  Nonlinear dynamics of semiconductor lasers with active optical feedback. , 2004, Physical review. E, Statistical, nonlinear, and soft matter physics.

[28]  S. Giovannoni,et al.  Molecular diversity and ecology of microbial plankton , 2005, Nature.

[29]  Silvano Donati,et al.  Introduction to the feature section on optical chaos and applications to cryptography , 2002 .

[30]  Jesper Mørk,et al.  Chaos in semiconductor lasers with optical feedback: theory and experiment , 1992 .

[31]  William Stallings,et al.  THE ADVANCED ENCRYPTION STANDARD , 2002, Cryptologia.

[32]  P. Colet,et al.  Security Implications of Open- and Closed-Loop Receivers in All-Optical Chaos-Based Communications , 2009, IEEE Photonics Technology Letters.

[33]  C. R. Mirasso,et al.  Open-versus closed-loop performance of synchronized chaotic external-cavity semiconductor lasers , 2002 .

[34]  Jiagui Wu,et al.  Suppression of time delay signatures of chaotic output in a semiconductor laser with double optical feedback. , 2009, Optics express.

[35]  Laurent Larger,et al.  Chaos-based communications at high bit rates using commercial fibre-optic links , 2005, Nature.

[36]  P Colet,et al.  Digital communication with synchronized chaotic lasers. , 1994, Optics letters.

[37]  Alan V. Oppenheim,et al.  Circuit implementation of synchronized chaos with applications to communications. , 1993, Physical review letters.

[38]  Alan V. Oppenheim,et al.  Synchronization of Lorenz-based chaotic circuits with applications to communications , 1993 .

[39]  W. Elsasser,et al.  Nonlinear dynamics of semiconductor laser emission under variable feedback conditions , 1991 .

[40]  Peter Ashwin,et al.  Nonlinear dynamics: Synchronization from chaos , 2003, Nature.