Matched Filter Chaos Communications

Chaos is a natural phenomenon that offers unique features that may be exploited to yield communication systems having beneficial characteristics. Useful chaotic oscillators of low-dimensionality can be constructed using simple, inexpensive components."Sensitivity to initial conditions"may be harnessed by means of the Hayes encoder concept to provide modulation of nearly arbitrary efficiency. The symbolic dynamics of chaotic waveforms offers a rich entropic source that enables complex signal coding. Recently, a class of hybrid chaotic oscillators was described that generates exactly-solvable chaos. Fortuitously, it turns out that such oscillator waveforms, while provably chaotic, admit basis-function expansions. As a result, extremely simple matched filters can be implemented to optimally detect noise-obscured symbols. In Phase I it was demonstrated how to build these oscillators and filters in hardware at low and radio frequencies and simulate their integrated performance. In this proposal we further advance this intriguing technology by pursuing the following objectives: 1) field a test prototype system at outdoor range; quantify bit error rate, bandwidth efficiency, peak-to-average power, signal interception probability etc., 2) improve performance by introducing antipodal signaling, codes based on restricted grammars, and high-frequency design alternatives.