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Gb/s One-Time-Pad Data Encryption With Synchronized Chaos-Based True Random Bit Generators

Argyris, Apostolos; Pikasis, Evangelos; Syvridis, Dimitris
Journal of Lightwave Technology 34, 5325-5331 (2016)

Ultrafast physical random bit generators based on broadband optical signals have been presented lately at astounding speeds. Some of the most popular mechanisms to obtain such random sequences are through signals that emerge from the coherence collapse operation of semiconductor lasers or from the photodetection signal beating of amplified spontaneous emission optical noise. Especially in the first case, the potential of chaotic signals to synchronize offers a great potential for secure communications. In this paper, we combine two unique properties of semiconductor lasers that operate at a chaotic regime: Their potential to become highly synchronized when optically coupled through appropriate configurations and their ability to seed ultrafast true random bit generators. The concurrent fulfillment of both conditions is shown in this paper and is used to demonstrate experimentally the one-time-pad encryption communication protocol. We report an error-free operation of such an encryption system, exceeding for the first time the Gb/s rate. Forward-error-correction coding is applied on the encryption scheme, in order to drastically reduce the errors of the synchronized true random bit sequences and optimize the decoding performance of the system, while securing the distribution of the random seed.