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Chaos-based communications at high bit rates using commercial fibre-optic links

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Abstract

Chaotic signals have been proposed as broadband information carriers with the potential of providing a high level of robustness and privacy in data transmission1,2. Laboratory demonstrations of chaos-based optical communications have already shown the potential of this technology3,4,5, but a field experiment using commercial optical networks has not been undertaken so far. Here we demonstrate high-speed long-distance communication based on chaos synchronization over a commercial fibre-optic channel. An optical carrier wave generated by a chaotic laser is used to encode a message for transmission over 120 km of optical fibre in the metropolitan area network of Athens, Greece. The message is decoded using an appropriate second laser which, by synchronizing with the chaotic carrier, allows for the separation of the carrier and the message. Transmission rates in the gigabit per second range are achieved, with corresponding bit-error rates below 10-7. The system uses matched pairs of semiconductor lasers as chaotic emitters and receivers, and off-the-shelf fibre-optic telecommunication components. Our results show that information can be transmitted at high bit rates using deterministic chaos in a manner that is robust to perturbations and channel disturbances unavoidable under real-world conditions.

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Figure 1: Two schematic set-ups for optical chaos communication.
Figure 2: Back-to-back synchronization.
Figure 3: Representative eye diagrams in the electro-optic set-up.
Figure 4: Field experiment of fibre transmission.

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Notes

  1. The PDF was replaced on 12 January 2006 because the earlier version had the wrong volume number (437 instead of 438) on each page.

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Acknowledgements

Financial support was provided by the European Commission through the IST project OCCULT. We thank ATTICA TELECOMMS SA for providing the installed fibre infrastructure for the field experiment, and S. Hansmann and J. Schumacher for providing the matched laser and detector pairs. We thank S. H. Strogatz for a careful reading of the manuscript. We are also grateful for the collaboration of J. P. Goedgebuer, W. Elsäßer, M. Peil, S. Poinsot, M. Benedetti, S. Merlo, M. Norgia, M. W. Lee, Y. Chembo Kouomou, T. Pérez, R. Vicente, J. Mulet, J. M. Buldú, M. C. Torrent, S. Ortin and the rest of the participants of the OCCULT project.

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Author notes

  1. Ingo Fischer

    Present address: Department of Applied Physics and Photonics, Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Pleinlaan 2, 1050, Brussels, Belgium

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Informatics, University of Athens, 15784, Athens, Greece

    Apostolos Argyris & Dimitris Syvridis

  2. UMR CNRS 6174, FEMTO-ST / Optics, University of Franche-Comté, 16 route de Gray, 25030 cedex, Besançon, France

    Laurent Larger

  3. Department of Electronics, University of Pavia, 27100, Pavia, Italy

    Valerio Annovazzi-Lodi

  4. Instituto Mediterráneo de Estudios Avanzados, (IMEDEA, CSIC-UIB), Campus UIB, E-07122, Palma de Mallorca, Spain

    Pere Colet

  5. Institute of Applied Physics, Darmstadt University of Technology, 64289, Darmstadt, Germany

    Ingo Fischer

  6. Departament de Física i Enginyeria Nuclear, Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya, E-08222, Terrassa, Spain

    Jordi García-Ojalvo

  7. Department de Física, Universitat de les Illes Balears, E-07122, Palma de Mallorca, Spain

    Claudio R. Mirasso

  8. Instituto de Física de Cantabria (CSIC-UC), Avd de los Castros s/n, E-39005, Santander, Spain

    Luis Pesquera

  9. School of Informatics, University of Wales, LL57 1UT, Bangor, UK

    K. Alan Shore

Authors
  1. Apostolos Argyris
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  2. Dimitris Syvridis
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  3. Laurent Larger
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  4. Valerio Annovazzi-Lodi
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  5. Pere Colet
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  7. Jordi García-Ojalvo
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  8. Claudio R. Mirasso
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  10. K. Alan Shore
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Claudio R. Mirasso.

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Reprints and permissions information is available at npg.nature.com/reprintsandpermissions. The authors declare no competing financial interests.

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Argyris, A., Syvridis, D., Larger, L. et al. Chaos-based communications at high bit rates using commercial fibre-optic links. Nature 438, 343–346 (2005). https://doi.org/10.1038/nature04275

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