Quantum noise ciphered optical stealth communication based on equivalent spectral encoding

Abstract

To provide secure and covert transmission for optical communication system at the same time, a quantum-noise stream ciphered optical stealth communication approach is proposed for the first time. In the proposed system, the optical pulses are time spread by a chromatic dispersion device and then phase modulated with optical codes at chip rate to realize an equivalent spectral encoding. Binary optical codes are converted to multiple level phase-shift keying signal according to Y-00 protocol. The encoded optical signals are attenuated to mesoscopic coherent states and sent to a public channel. The ciphered signals are stealthy transmitted under public channel noise. The availability and covertness of the optical stealth channel is verified by system simulations.