Exploiting Optics Chaos for Image Encryption-Then-Transmission

A novel symmetric image encryption-then-transmission system based on optical chaos using semiconductor lasers is proposed. In this paper, with identical chaotic injection from a master laser, two slave lasers (SL1 and SL2) can output similar chaotic signals served as chaotic carrier to transmit image. Meanwhile, the chaotic signal of SL1 can be used to generate the key of the encryption scheme. After employing the three-dimensional (3D) cat map and logistic chaotic map, the positions of image pixels are shuffled, and the relationship between the cipher-image and the plain-image is confused simultaneously. Therefore, the system can resist the common attacks such as statistical attack, differential attack, and brute force attack. Through numerical simulations, the high quality chaos synchronization between SL1 and SL2 is obtained. When the chaos masking technique is adopted, the image encrypted by the proposed encryption scheme can be successfully transmitted and decrypted in a 10 km single mode fiber channel from SL1 to SL2, which is accompanied by a bit error rate of less than 6.18 x 10(-19). Exhaustive tests about security analysis are carried out, demonstrating the valuable feasibility and high security of the image encryption-then-transmission system.