Strengthening Quality of Chaotic Bit Sequences

Abstract

We discuss chaos and its quality as measured through the 0-1 test for chaos. When the 0-1 test indicates deteriorating quality of chaos, because of the finite precision representations of real numbers in digital implementations, then the process may eventually lead to a periodic sequence. A simple method for improving the quality of a chaotic signal is to mix the signal with another signal by using the XOR operation. In this paper, such mixing of weak chaotic signals is considered, yielding new signals with improved quality (with K values from the 0-1 test close to 1). In some sense, such a mixing of signals could be considered as a two-layer prevention strategy to maintain chaos. That fact may be important in those applications when the hardware resources are limited. The 0-1 test is used to show the improved chaotic behavior in the case when a continuous signal (for example, from the Chua, Rössler or Lorenz system) intermingles with a discrete signal (for example, from the logistic, Tinkerbell or Henon map). The analysis is presented for chaotic bit sequences. Our approach can further lead to hardware applications, and possibly, to improvements in the design of chaotic bit generators. Several illustrative examples are included.