A new secured transmission scheme based on chaotic synchronization via smooth adaptive unknown-input observers

We present a new scheme for the secured transmission of information based on master-slave synchronization of chaotic systems, using unknown-input observers. Our approach improves upon state-of-the-art schemes by being compatible with information of relatively large amplitude while improving security against intruders through an intricate encryption system. In addition, our approach is robust to channel noise. The main idea is to separate the encryption and synchronization operations by using two cascaded chaotic systems in the transmitter. Technically, the scheme is based on smooth adaptive unknown-input observers; these have the advantage to estimate the (master) states and to reconstruct the unknown inputs simultaneously. The performance of the communication system is illustrated in numerical simulation. (C) 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.