ABSTRACT
Several other groups are currently working to develop methods for optical communication with chaos. A theoretical method for synchronizing chaotic nonlinear optical ring oscillators is proposed by Daisy and Fischer in Reference 10. They also discuss the possibility of using these synchronized ring oscillators for communication purposes. The oscillators they describe are similar in nature to erbium-doped fiber ring lasers (EDFRLs); though, the method they propose is unrelated to the methods presented in the following sections. Luo and Chu11 have proposed a method for “secure” communications with EDFRLs that is also substantially different than the methods presented in this thesis. Actual experimental implementation of their method appears problematic, however. From an experimental perspective, the tolerances in the parameter mismatch between the two EDFRLs used in their method seem difficult to obtain and maintain. Later, the same group12 experimentally demonstrated optical chaotic communication with a different method, which was very similar to one previously developed by VanWiggeren and Roy13 (the method is discussed in Section 7.4).
