Spread-spectrum communication using binary spatiotemporal chaotic codes

We propose a scheme to generate binary code for baseband spread-spectrum communication by using a chain of coupled chaotic maps. We compare the performances of this type of spatiotemporal chaotic code with those of a conventional code used frequently in digital communication, the Gold code, and demonstrate that our code is comparable or even superior to the Gold code in several key aspects: security, bit error rate, code generation speed, and the number of possible code sequences. As the field of communicating with chaos faces doubts in terms of performance comparison with conventional digital communication schemes, our work gives a clear message that communicating with chaos can be advantageous and it deserves further attention from the nonlinear science community. (C) 2004 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.