Signal Processing 80 (2000) 1307}1320

Digital communications using chaos

Michael Peter Kennedy *, Geza Kolumban H H
Department of Microelectronic Engineering, University College, Cork, Ireland Department of Measurement and Information Systems, Budapest University of Technology and Economics, H-1521 Budapest, Hungary Received 28 October 1997; received in revised form 27 July 1998

Abstract During the past "ve years, there has been tremendous interest worldwide in the possibility of exploiting chaos in wideband communications systems. This survey paper discusses the implications of using chaotic basis functions in digital communications. Preliminary performance results are given, potential bene"ts are discussed, and possible application domains are identi"ed. 2000 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved. Zusammenfassung Wahrend der letzten funf Jahre gibt es ein sehr gro{es weltweites Interesse daran, die Moglichkeiten von Chaos in K K K Breitbandkommunikationssystemen auszunutzen. Dieser Ubersichtsarktikel diskutiert die Konsequenzen, die durch den G Gebrauch chaotischer Basisfunktionen in der digitalen Ubertragung entstehen. Vorlau"ge Ergebnisse werden mitgeteilt, G K mogliche Vorteile werden diskutiert und mogliche Anwendungsgebiete werden indenti"ziert. K K 2000 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved. Resume 2 2 Durant les cinq dernieres annees il y a eu un interet enorme partout dans le monde sur la possibilite d'utiliser les chaos ` H H ( H H dans les communications large bande. Cet article discute les implications qu'apporte l'utilisation des fonctions de bases chaotiques dans le communications numeriques. Nous presentons des resultats preliminaires sur la performance, nous H H H H discutons les avantages potentiels et nous identi"ons des domaines d'application possibles. 2000 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.

1. Motivation In recent years, there has been explosive growth in personal communications, the aim of which is to guarantee the availability of voice and/or data services between mobile communications terminals.

* Corresponding author. Tel.: #353-21-490-4282; fax: #353-21-490-4374. E-mail address: peter.kennedy@ucc.ie (M.P. Kennedy)

In order to provide these services, radio links are required for a large number of compact terminals in densely populated areas. As a result, there is a need to provide high-frequency, low-power, low-voltage circuitry. The huge demand for telecommunications results in a large number of users; therefore, today's telecommunications systems are limited primarily by interference from other users. In some applications, the e$cient use of available bandwidth is extremely important, but in other applications, where the exploitation of communication

0165-1684/00/$ - see front matter 2000 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved. PII: S 0 1 6 5 - 1 6 8 4 ( 0 0 ) 0 0 0 3 8 - 4

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channels is relatively low, a wideband communication technique having limited bandwidth e$ciency can also be used. Often, many users must be provided with simultaneous access to the same or neighboring frequency bands. The optimum strategy in this situation, where every user appears as interference to every other user, is for each communicator's signal to look like white noise which is as wideband as possible [25]. There are two ways in which a communicator's signal can be made to appear like wideband noise: by spreading each symbol using a pseudorandom sequence to increase the bandwidth of the transmitted signal, or by representing each symbol by a piece of `noise-likea waveform. The conventional solution to this problem is the "rst approach: to use a synchronizable pseudorandom sequence to spread the transmitted signal, and to use a conventional modulation scheme based on phase shift keying (PSK) or frequency shift keying (FSK). Such direct sequence (DS) spread spectrum (SS) schemes have processing gain associated with despreading at the receiver, and the possibility to provide multiple access by assigning mutually orthogonal sequences to di!erent users. This is the basis of code division multiple access (CDMA) communications systems. Limitations are imposed by the need to achieve and maintain carrier and symbol synchronization, by the periodic nature of the spreading sequences, the limited number of available orthogonal sequences, and the periodic nature of the carrier. One further problem is that the orthogonality of the spreading sequences requires the synchronization of all spreading sequences used in the same frequency band, i.e. the whole system must be synchronized. Due to di!erent propagation times for di!erent users, perfect synchronization can never be achieved in real systems. An alternative approach to making a transmission `noise-likea is to represent the transmitted symbols not as weighted sums of periodic basis functions but as inherently non-periodic chaotic basis functions [12]. This survey paper focusses on digital modulation using chaotic carriers.

2. What is chaos? Deterministic dynamical systems are those whose states change with time in a deterministic way. They may be described mathematically by di!erential or di!erence equations, depending on whether they evolve in continuous or discrete time. Deterministic dynamical systems can produce a number of di!erent steady-state behaviors including DC, periodic, and chaotic solutions [10]. DC is a non-oscillatory state. Periodic behavior is the simplest type of steady-state oscillatory motion. Sinusoidal signals, which are universally used as carriers in analog and digital communications systems, are periodic solutions of continuous-time deterministic dynamical systems. Deterministic dynamical systems also admit a class of non-periodic signals which are characterized by a continuous `noise-likea broad power spectrum; this is chaos [11]. In the time domain, chaotic signals appear `random.a Chaotic systems are characterized by `sensitive dependence on initial conditionsa; a small perturbation eventually causes a large change in the state of the system. Equivalently, chaotic signals decorrelate rapidly with themselves. The autocorrelation function of a chaotic signal has a large peak at zero and decays rapidly. Thus, while chaotic systems share many of the properties of stochastic processes, they also possess a deterministic structure which makes it possible to generate `noise-likea chaotic signals in a theoretically reproducible manner. In particular, continuous-time chaotic systems can be used to generate wideband carriers, i.e. basis functions for chaotic digital communications systems.

3. Potential bene5ts of chaotic basis functions in digital communications The aim of this work is to describe the state of the art in digital modulation schemes which use chaotic rather than periodic basis functions. Problems and opportunities arising from the non-periodicity of chaotic signals are highlighted, solutions are proposed, potential application domains are identi"ed, and current research directions are discussed.

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Since only analog telecommunication channels are available, digital information to be transmitted has to be mapped into analog sample functions in a communications system. The sample functions pass through the analog channel and are identi"ed at the receiver in order to recover the transmitted digital information. In a conventional digital communications system several sample functions are used, i.e. the modulator represents each symbol to be transmitted as a weighted sum of a number of periodic basis functions. Typically, an in-phase and a quadrature signal are used, such as a sine and a cosine. The objective of the receiver is to recover the weights associated with the received signal and thereby to decide which symbol was transmitted [5]. The modulated signal consists of segments of periodic waveforms corresponding to individual symbols. The segment of analog waveform corresponding to each symbol is unique. When sinusoidal basis functions are used, the transmitted signal is a narrowband signal. Consequently, multipath propagation can cause high attenuation or even dropout of the received narrowband signal. A chaotic signal generator automatically produces a wideband noise-like signal with robust and reproducible statistical properties [9,8]. Due to its wideband nature, a signal comprising chaotic basis functions is potentially more resistant to multipath propagation than one constructed of sinusoids. The factor which limits the performance of all telecommunications systems is interference. In conventional systems based on periodic carrier signals, where the SS-CDMA technique is not used, signals can be made orthogonal by putting them in di!erent frequency bands (FDMA technique), by ensuring that the basis functions are orthogonal to each other (using sine and cosine basis functions, for

example), or using orthogonal electromagnetic polarization, for example. If these requirements are not met, interference occurs. In contrast with periodic signals, chaotic signals decorrelate rapidly with themselves and chaotic signals generated by di!erent chaotic circuits are almost orthogonal. This means that the correlation, equivalently the interference, between two chaotic signals generated by unsynchronized chaotic circuits started from di!erent initial conditions and/or having di!erent circuit parameters is low.

4. Digital communication using chaos In a conventional communication system, the analog sample function of duration which represents a symbol is a linear combination of sinusoidal basis functions and the symbol duration is an integer multiple of the period of the basis function. In a chaos-based digital communication system, shown schematically in Fig. 1, the analog sample function of duration which represents a symbol is a chaotic basis function. The decision as to which symbol was transmitted is made by estimating some property of the received sample function [24,6]. That property might be the energy of the chaotic signal or the correlation measured between di!erent parts of the transmitted signal, for example. Since chaotic waveforms are not periodic, each sample function of duration is di!erent. This has the advantage that each transmitted symbol is represented by a unique analog sample function, and the correlation between chaotic sample functions is signi"cantly lower than for periodic signals. However, it also produces a problem associated with estimating long-term statistics of a chaotic process from sample functions of "nite duration. We will

Fig. 1. Block diagram of a chaotic communication scheme.

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Fig. 2. Model of an additive white Gaussian noise channel including the frequency selectivity of the receiver. Fig. 3. Block diagram of a CSK modulator.

discuss this so-called estimation problem [18] in more detail in Section 5.1. 4.1. Channel ewects In any practical communications system, the signal r (t) which is present at the input to the deG modulator di!ers from that which was transmitted, due to the e!ects of the channel. The simplest realistic model of the channel is a linear bandpass channel with additive white Gaussian noise (AWGN). A block diagram of the bandpass AWGN channel model which we consider throughout this work is shown in Fig. 2. 4.2. Coherent versus non-coherent detection In chaos-based digital communication systems, as in conventional communications schemes, the transmitted symbols can be recovered using either coherent [13,2] or non-coherent [23] demodulation techniques. 4.2.1. Coherent detection (with synchronization) Coherent detection is accomplished by reproducing copies of the basis functions in the receiver, typically by means of a synchronization scheme [15]. When synchronization is exploited, the synchronization scheme must be able to recover the basis function(s) from the corrupted received signal. If the basis function is a sinusoid, then a phaselocked loop (PLL) may be used to recover the instantaneous phase of the received signal [5]. The low-pass-loop "lter in the PLL helps to suppress noise. When a wideband chaotic basis function is used, the synchronization circuit must reproduce

the basis function as generated at the transmitter. Typically, both the `amplitudea and `phasea of the signal must be determined, without the bene"t of a narrowband linear "lter to suppress the noise. Consider the binary chaos shift keying (CSK) transmitter shown in Fig. 3 [3]. The transmitted sample functions s (t)"g (t) and s (t)"g (t) (rep    resenting symbols `1a and `0a, respectively) are the outputs of two free-running chaotic signal generators which produce basis functions g (t) and g (t).   Fig. 4 shows a coherent (synchronization-based) receiver using binary chaos shift keying (CSK) modulation. Synchronization circuits in the receiver attempt to reproduce the basis functions, given the received noisy sample function r (t)" G s (t)#n(t). G An acquisition time is allowed for the syn1 chronization circuits to lock to the incoming signal. The recovered basis functions g (t) and g (t) are ( (   then correlated with r (t) for the remainder of the G bit duration . A decision is made on the basis of the relative closeness of r (t) to g (t) and g (t), as ( ( G   quanti"ed by the observation variables z and z , G G respectively. Recent studies of chaotic synchronization, where signi"cant noise and "ltering have been introduced in the channel, suggest that the performance of chaotic synchronization schemes is worse, at low signal-to-noise ratio (SNR), than that of the best synchronization schemes for sinusoids [15,17,16]. 4.2.2. Non-coherent detection (without synchronization) Synchronization (in the sense of carrier recovery) is not required for digital communication; demodulation can also be performed without

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Fig. 4. Block diagram of a coherent CSK receiver.

Fig. 5. Block diagram of a non-coherent CSK receiver.

synchronization. This is true for both periodic and chaotic sample functions. In this case, the receiver estimates, from the noisy received signal, the property (such as the bit energy) which carries the transmitted information, without recovering the basis functions. The decision as to which symbol was transmitted is made by comparing this estimate against a threshold. In the following section, we discuss four noncoherent chaotic communication receiver con"gurations: chaos shift keying (CSK), chaotic on}o! keying (COOK), di!erential chaos shift keying (DCSK), and FM-DCSK. Of these schemes, DCSK and FM-DCSK have the best noise performance. 5. Survey of non-coherent chaotic communication schemes 5.1. Chaos shift keying In the chaos shift keying (CSK) modulation scheme, chaotic signals with di!erent bit energies

are used to transmit the binary information. The modulator is a very simple circuit: for bit `1a, a chaotic sample function with mean bit energy E (s ) is radiated; for bit `0a, a chaotic sample M  function with mean bit energy E (s ) is radiated. M  The required chaotic signals having di!erent bit energies can be generated by di!erent chaotic circuits (as shown in Fig. 3) or they can be produced by the same chaotic circuit and multiplied by two di!erent constants. In both cases, the binary information to be transmitted is mapped to the bit energies of chaotic sample functions. The bit energy can be estimated by a correlator at the receiver, as shown in Fig. 5. The observation signal z which is used by the G decision circuit is de"ned by z" G "

 

2 2

r(t) dt" G

s(t) dt#2 G

 
2

[s (t)#n(t)] dt G s (t)n(t) dt# G

n(t) dt, 2

(1)

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Fig. 6. Histograms of 1000 samples of the observation signal in a non-coherent CSK receiver with (a) noise-free and (b) noisy channels.

where  denotes integration over one sample func2 tion. In the noise-free case, the second and third terms in (1) are zero. Consequently, z assumes the values G  s (t) dt and  s (t) dt (equivalently the bit ener2  2  gies E (s ) and E (s )) when bits `1a and `0a,   respectively, are received. Figs. 6(a) and (b) show histograms of samples of the observation signal z for noise-free and noisy G channels. Note that the samples of z associated G with the transmitted symbols are not constant, even in the noise-free case. Rather, they are clustered around E (s ) and E (s ) with variances  and  , M M     respectively. In conventional modulation schemes using periodic basis functions, s (t) is periodic and the bit G duration is an integer multiple of the period of the basis function; hence,  s(t) dt is constant. By 2 G contrast, chaotic signals are inherently non-periodic, so  s(t) dt varies from one sample function 2 G of length to another. This e!ect produces the non-zero variance in the samples of z in Fig. 6(a). G The standard deviation of samples of  s (t) dt 2  scales as 1/, as shown in Fig. 7. Thus, the variance of estimation can be reduced by increasing the bit duration . Fig. 8 shows the noise performance of a noncoherent CSK receiver for four di!erent bit durations. For "5 and 10 ms, the variance of estimation is so large that the histograms associated with received bits `1a and `0a overlap, even

Fig. 7. The variance of estimation can be reduced by increasing the bit duration.

for large ratios of energy per bit to noise spectral density (E /N ). As a result, the bit error rate (BER)  is bounded from below. Note, however, that the variance of estimation (Fig. 7) and consequently the noise performance (Fig. 8) are signi"cantly improved for bit durations greater than 20 ms. A signi"cant drawback of non-coherent CSK is that the threshold level required by the decision circuit depends on the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR). The optimum threshold of the level comparator for decision-making is denoted by the dash}dot line in

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Fig. 8. Noise performance of a non-coherent CSK system for four di!erent bit durations .

Fig. 6. Note that it is di!erent in the noise-free and noisy cases, due to the third term in (1). The distance between the peaks of the histogram is determined primarily by the di!erence between the mean bit energies E (s ) and E (s ) associated M M   with the two chaotic sample functions. For a given noise level and chaotic signal, the best noise performance can be achieved if the distance between the two mean values is maximized. This requirement can be satis"ed by the chaotic on}ow-keying described next [14]. 5.2. Chaotic on}ow-keying For a given E , the maximum distance between the elements of a binary signal set can be achieved if on}o!-keying is used. In the chaotic on}o!-keying

(COOK) scheme, the chaotic signal is switched on and o! to transmit symbols `1a and `0a respectively, as shown in Fig. 9. If the average bit energy is E and both symbols are equiprobable, then the distance between the elements of the signal set is 2E . Histograms of samples of the observation signal z for noise-free G and noisy channels are shown in Figs. 10(a) and (b), respectively. The optimum decision threshold is denoted by a dash}dot line. The noise performance of the non-coherent COOK scheme is shown in Fig. 11, where the parameter is the symbol duration. Note that for BER"10\, COOK requires an E /N of 15.5 dB;  this is 8 dB less than the corresponding value for non-coherent CSK [17]. The superior noise performance of the COOK scheme results from the fact that the distance between the elements of the signal set is increased compared to the CSK method. The major disadvantage of the CSK system, namely that the threshold value of the decision circuit depends on the noise level, also appears in COOK. This means that using COOK we can maximize the distance between the elements of the signal set, but the threshold level required by the decision circuit depends on the SNR. The threshold can be kept constant by applying the diwerential chaos shift keying method. 5.3. Diwerential chaos shift keying In di!erential chaos shift keying (DCSK), every bit to be transmitted is represented by two chaotic sample functions. The "rst sample function serves as a reference while the second one carries the

Fig. 9. Block diagram of noncoherent COOK modulation scheme.

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Fig. 10. Histograms of 1000 samples of the observation signal in a non-coherent COOK system with (a) noise-free and (b) noisy channel.

Fig. 12. Block diagram of a DCSK modulator.

Fig. 11. Noise performance of non-coherent COOK modulation scheme. Fig. 13. DCSK signal corresponding to binary sequence 1100.

information. Bit `1a is sent by transmitting a reference signal provided by a chaos generator twice in succession, while for bit `0a, the reference chaotic signal is transmitted, followed by an inverted copy of the same signal. Thus, x(t), t )t(t #/2, I I s (t)"  #x(t!/2), t #/2)t(, I x(t), t )t(t #/2, I I s (t)"  !x(t!/2), t #/2)t(. I

Figs. 12 and 13 show a block diagram of a DCSK modulator and a typical DCSK signal corresponding to the binary sequence 1100. In this example, the chaotic signal is produced by an analog phaselocked loop (APLL) [22]. Since each bit is mapped to the correlation between successive segments of the transmitted signal of length /2, the information signal can be recovered by a correlator. A block diagram of a DCSK demodulator is shown in Fig. 14.

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Fig. 14. Block diagram of a DCSK receiver.

Fig. 15. Correlator output corresponding to sequence 1100.

The received noisy signal is delayed by half of the bit duration (/2) and the correlation between the received signal and the delayed copy of itself is determined. The decision is made by a level comparator [23]. Fig. 15 shows the correlator output for the transmitted signal shown in Fig. 13. The observation variable z is positive at the decision times 0.3 and G 0.36 s, and is negative at 0.4 and 0.44 s, allowing the transmitted bit sequence to be recovered. In DCSK, the observation signal has the form z" G

"

"

  

2

r (t)r (t!/2) dt G G [s (t)#n(t)][s (t)#n(t!/2)] dt G G s(t) dt# G

2

2

2

s (t)[n(t)#n(t!/2)] dt G

n(t)n(t!/2) dt.

2

The histogram of samples of the observation signal in the absence of channel noise is shown in Fig. 16(a). Note that this scheme also su!ers from the estimation problem. The non-zero variance of z results from the non-periodic nature of the chaG otic signal: neither  s (t) dt nor  s (t) dt is 2  2  constant but vary from one symbol to the next. The estimation problem also manifests itself in the noise performance characteristics shown in Fig. 17. Note that if the bit duration is too small, the BER cannot be reduced. For su$ciently large , the noise performance of DCSK is comparable to that of a conventional sinusoid-based modulation scheme: E /N "13.3 dB is required for  BER"10\. By contrast with the CSK and COOK schemes discussed in Sections 5.1 and 5.2, DCSK is an antipodal modulation scheme. In addition to superior noise performance, the decision threshold is zero independently of E /N [23].  A further advantage results from the fact that the reference- and information-bearing sample functions pass through the same channel, thereby rendering the modulation scheme insensitive to channel distortion. DCSK can also operate over a time-varying channel if the parameters of the channel remain constant for the bit duration . The principal drawback of DCSK arises from the fact that the correlation is performed over half the bit duration. For a given bit energy, the bit-rate is half that of a comparable conventional antipodal modulation scheme [15,16]. In the CSK, COOK and DCSK modulation schemes, the information signal to be transmitted is mapped to chaotic sample functions of "nite length.

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Fig. 16. Histogram of 1000 samples of the observation signal in (a) noise-free and (b) noisy DCSK systems.

5.4. FM-DCSK The objective of FM-DCSK is to generate a wideband DCSK signal with constant E . The instantaneous power of an FM signal does not depend on the modulation. Let the chaotic signal be the input of an FM modulator. If the wideband output of the FM modulator is varied using the DCSK technique, then the correlator output in the receiver has zero variance in the noise-free case and the estimation problem is solved. Note that, as in the DCSK technique, every information bit is transmitted in two pieces; the "rst sample function serves as a reference, while the second carries the information. The operation of the modulator is the same as in DCSK, the only di!erence being that not the chaotic, but the FM modulated signal is the input to the DCSK modulator. As shown in Fig. 18, the input of the FM modulator is a chaotic signal, which can be generated by a chaotic analog phase-locked loop (APLL), for example. If the chaotic signal is generated by an appropriately designed APLL then the output of the FM modulator has a band-limited spectrum with uniform power spectral density, as shown in Fig. 19 [20]. The demodulator of an FM-DCSK system is a DCSK receiver. The only di!erence is that, instead of low-frequency chaotic signals, the FM signals are correlated directly, as shown in Fig. 20.

Fig. 17. Noise performance of DCSK system.

We have seen that the property required by the decision circuit at the receiver can only be estimated because of the non-periodic nature of chaotic signals. The estimation has a non-zero variance even in the noise-free case; this puts a lower bound on the bit duration and thereby limits the data rate. One way to improve the data rate is to use a multilevel modulation scheme such as those described in [19]. Alternatively, one may solve the estimation problem directly by modifying the modulation scheme such that the transmitted energy for each symbol is kept constant. FM-DCSK is an example of the latter approach.

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Fig. 18. Block diagram of an FM-DCSK modulator. The low-frequency chaotic signal is generated by an APLL.

required by the decision circuit is always zero, regardless of the noise level. The noise performance of the FM-DCSK system is shown in Fig. 22. The main advantage of FM-DCSK modulation over CSK, COOK and DCSK is that the data rate is not limited by the properties of the chaotic signal.

6. Summary Over the past few years, several methods have been proposed for using chaotic signals in digital communications systems. The oldest scheme is CSK, where di!erent symbols are represented by di!erent chaotic signals. When a chaotic carrier is used, coherent detection o!ers an advantage in terms of noise performance if synchronization can be achieved and maintained. Unfortunately, those chaos synchronization techniques which are currently available are not su$ciently robust to maintain synchronization in a noisy channel. By contrast, non-coherent

Fig. 19. Power spectral density of the transmitted signal in an FM-DCSK scheme.

Figs. 21(a) and (b) show histograms of the observation signal at the receiver for noise-free and noisy channels, respectively. Note that the variance of estimation is zero in the noise-free case, as expected. For equiprobable symbols, the threshold level

Fig. 20. Block diagram of the FM-DCSK demodulator.

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Fig. 21. Histogram of 1000 samples of the observation signal z in an FM-DCSK receiver for (a) noise-free and (b) noisy channels. G

Fig. 22. Noise performance of the FM-DCSK system.

Fig. 23. Noise performance of the CSK, COOK and DCSK/FM-DCSK techniques. Non-coherent FSK is shown for comparison.

detection based on estimating the energy per bit or statistical properties of chaotic basis functions represents a feasible solution to digital communication using CSK and COOK. We have highlighted the drawbacks of coherent CSK and the fundamental problem associated with estimating long-term statistical properties of chaotic signals from sample functions of "nite length. The estimation problem limits the data rate of chaotic communications. We have shown how the noise performance of CSK can be improved by using the COOK technique. In DCSK, the threshold level of the decision

device is kept constant and the distance between the elements of the signal set is maximized. The noise performance of non-coherent CSK, COOK, and DCSK is summarized graphically in Fig. 23. The upper bound on the data rate of DCSK can be increased by using multilevel modulation schemes or by keeping the transmitted energy constant for each symbol. The FM-DCSK technique, which is an antipodal modulation scheme with constant bit energy, represents an optimal solution in the sense that the distance between the elements of the signal set is E . Its noise performance is equal

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to that of DCSK but the data rate is not limited by the properties of the underlying chaotic signal.

chaos include mobile telephony, factory automation, and powerline communications.

Acknowledgements 7. Open problems and expected developments Although FM-DCSK o!ers the best performance of the chaotic modulation techniques descibed here, it should be emphasized that the "eld of chaos communications is very young and that several signi"cant improvements in performance are possible [12]. Firstly, we have suggested that existing chaos synchronization techniques are not su$ciently robust to permit coherent detection of chaotic transmissions. It should be emphasized that coherent antipodal chaotic modulation schemes have not yet been developed, nor have techniques been proposed for maintaining synchronization throughout the transmission. However, the "eld of chaos synchronization is undergoing rapid development and more robust chaos synchronization techniques and modulation schemes may emerge. To our knowledge, FM-DCSK o!ers the best performance of the non-coherent modulation schemes which are available in the literature. The performance of this scheme should be quanti"ed theoretically. Some results in this direction for simpli"ed systems are beginning to appear [4,1]. Proposed improvements to the DCSK/FM-DCSK modulation scheme suggest that its performance can approach that of coherent FSK [7]. It is not yet clear how well chaotic modulation schemes can perform in multipath and fading channels. Further research is required to verify the performance of chaos communications under poor propagation conditions. Finally, on the implementation front, additional research and development work is required in the design, characterization, and implementation of chaotic signal sources. Low-pass chaotic signals can be generated by very simple circuits [8]. The chaotic analog phase-locked loop (APLL) can generate bandpass basis functions in any frequency band and at any power level [22,21] Potential application domains for low-cost robust wideband digital modulation schemes using This work has been sponsored in part by the European Commission under the Open LTR initiative (Esprit Project 21103 - INSPECT) and by the National Scienti"c Research Foundation of Hungary under Grant number T-020522. Special thanks are due to Z. Jako, G. Kis, and T. KolumH H ban for producing the "gures. The authors acknowH ledge extensive discussions with their colleagues in the Chaos Communications Collective. References
[1] A. Abel, M. Gotz, W. Schwarz, Statistical analysis of chaK otic communication schemes, Proceedings of the ISCAS'98, Monterey, 1998, pp. IV-465}IV-468. [2] K.M. Cuomo, A.V. Oppenheim, S.H. Strogatz, Synchronization of Lorenz-based chaotic circuits with applications to communications, IEEE Trans. Circuits Systems } Part II: Analog and Digital Signal Processing 40 (10) (October 1993). [3] H. Dedieu, M.P. Kennedy, M. Hasler, Chaos shift keying: modulation and demodulation of a chaotic carrier using self-synchronizing Chua's circuits, IEEE Trans. Circuits Systems } Part II: Analog Digital Signal Process. (Special Issue) Chaos Nonlinear Electron. Circuits } Part C: Appl. 40 (10) (October 1993) 634}642. [4] M. Gotz, A. Abel, W. Schwarz, What is the use of K Frobenius}Perron operator for chaotic signal processing, Proceedings of the NDES'97, Moscow, June 1997, pp. 8}13. [5] S.S. Haykin, Communication Systems, 3rd Edition, Wiley, New York, 1994. [6] S.H. Isabelle, G.W. Wornell, Statistical analysis and spectral estimation techniques for one-dimensional chaotic signals, IEEE Trans. Signal Process. 45 (6) (June 1997) 1495}1506. [7] Z. Jako, Performance improvement of DCSK modulation, H H Proceedings of the NDES'98, Budapest, 16}18 July 1998, pp. 119}122. [8] M.P. Kennedy, Three steps to chaos, Part II: a Chua's circuit primer, IEEE Trans. Circuits Systems } Part I: Fundam. Theory Appl. (Special Issue) Chaos Nonlinear Electron. Circuits } Part A: Tutorial Rev. 40 (10) (October 1993) 657}674. [9] M.P. Kennedy, Three steps to chaos, Part I: evolution, IEEE Trans. Circuits Systems } Part I: Fundam. Theory Appl. (Special Issue) Chaos Nonlinear Electron. Circuits } Part A: Tutorial Rev. 40 (10) (October 1993) 640}656.

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[10] M.P. Kennedy, Basic concepts of nonlinear dynamics and chaos, in: C. Toumazou (Ed.), Circuits and Systems Tutorials, IEEE Press, London, 1994, pp. 289}313. [11] M.P. Kennedy, Bifurcation and chaos, in: W.K. Chen (Ed.), The Circuits and Filters Handbook, CRC Press, BocaRaton, 1995, pp. 1089}1164. [12] M.P. Kennedy, Applications of chaos in communications, in: D. Docampo, A.R. Figueiras-Vidal, F. Perez-Gonzalez (Eds.), Intelligent Methods in Signal Processing and Communications, Birkhauser, Boston, 1997. [13] M.P. Kennedy, H. Dedieu, Experimental demonstration of binary chaos shift keying using self-synchronizing Chua's circuits, in: A.C. Davies, W. Schwarz (Eds.), Proceedings of the IEEE International Specialist Workship on Nonlinear Dynamics of Electronics Systems, Dresden, 23}24 July 1993, pp. 67}72. [14] M.P. Kennedy, G. Kis, Z. Jako, G. Kolumban, Chaotic H H communications systems for unlicensed radio, Proceedings of the NOLTA'97, Hawaii, 29 November}3 December 1997, pp. 121}124. [15] G. Kolumban, M.P. Kennedy, L.O. Chua, The role of H synchronization in digital communications using chaos } Part I: fundamentals of digital communications, IEEE Trans. Circuits Systems } Part I: Fundam. Theory Appl. 44 (10) (October 1997) 927}936. [16] G. Kolumban, M.P. Kennedy, L.O. Chua, The role of H synchronization in digital communications using chaos } Part II: chaotic modulation and chaotic synchronization, IEEE Trans. Circuits Systems } Part I: Fundam. Theory Appl. 45 (11) (November 1998) 1129}1140. [17] G. Kolumban, H. Dedieu, J. Schweizer, J. Ennitis, B. ViH zvari, Performance evaluation and comparison of chaos H communication systems, Proceedings of the Fourth

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