Network Authentication with Synchronized Chaotic Lasers

We numerically study a hardware method for network authentication, where a pair of matched (twins) chaotic lasers generate the same chaos when they synchronize, being subject to the same optical injection from a third chaotic laser. One of the lasers is in the secure environment, the other in the unsecure environment, and authorization is granted only if the two responses match. As in other PUF (Physically Unclonable Functions) related schemes, security is based on unavoidable differences between nominally identical but physically separate devices, and, more specifically, to the sensitivity of chaos to laser parameter dispersion.