Introduction to chaos-based communications and signal processing

The evolution of the new discipline of nonlinear engineering is taking place along two fronts: the first addressing higher-order effects that have become more important in current designs, while the second more radical activity has focused on the explicit harnessing of nonlinear effects through whole new designs. For the latter case, the most studied nonlinear effect is that of the complex, random-like behavior called "chaos," which is now being applied to such diverse areas as communications, signal processing, fluid mechanics, and physiology. This tutorial survey paper focuses on the application of chaos to the efficiency, reliability, and especially security of information processing and transfer. It first addresses the emergence of nonlinear engineering, the basics of dynamical systems, and the technical essentials of chaos. A brief representative tour of some novel applications is then given, including progress on an effort to realize a microwave chaos-based communications system.