Changes in the characteristics of chaotic optical signals owing to propagation in optical fibers

Abstract

Chaos has the deterministic and unpredictable aspects useful for secure communications. Chaos encrypted optical signals provide high degree of security in free space as well as in optical fibers, but the effects of propagation through these mediums were not explored. In this paper, the evolution of Lyapunov exponent of optical chaos encrypted signal in optical fibers is studied. To study the effects of fiber channel, three different chaotic optical encryption schemes are studied and compared.