Stable High-Speed Encryption Key Distribution via Synchronization of Chaotic Optoelectronic Oscillators
Fabian Böhm, Sevada Sahakian, Ann Dooms, Guy Verschaffelt, Guy Van der Sande
Abstract
Synchronization of chaotic photonic systems can be used, practically indefinitely, to create and distribute unique encryption keys ($o\phantom{\rule{0}{0ex}}n\phantom{\rule{0}{0ex}}e\ensuremath{-}t\phantom{\rule{0}{0ex}}i\phantom{\rule{0}{0ex}}m\phantom{\rule{0}{0ex}}e$ $p\phantom{\rule{0}{0ex}}a\phantom{\rule{0}{0ex}}d\phantom{\rule{0}{0ex}}s$). However, typical photonic systems are highly susceptible to phase fluctuations and fundamentally limited in their key-generation rate. In this work, the authors demonstrate a fundamentally different approach based on chaotic optoelectronic oscillators (OEOs), with which highly stable synchronization can be achieved through commercial fiber-optic links. Contrary to current photonic systems, OEOs are $n\phantom{\rule{0}{0ex}}o\phantom{\rule{0}{0ex}}t$ limited by relaxation oscillations and allow significantly increased rates of key generation, for fast and stable data encryption.