Quantization Effects in Digital Chaotic Communication Systems

Recent work in developing digital chaotic communication systems has validated the potential to increase low probability of interception/detection (LPI/D) performance levels over direct sequence spread spectrum (DSSS) comms, but at the expense of a multi-bit resolution spreading signal with relatively high peak-to-average power ratio (PAPR). This paper quantifies the LPI/D and communications performance trades that come from reducing the precision of the multi-bit resolution signal, with the objective of optimizing hardware utilization via reduced-precision chaotic signals and quantifying performance trades for disadvantaged platforms. Sensitivities of the digital chaos generation process, baseband transmitter processing, and matched filter reception are considered independently, preliminary measurements for compressed HPA distortion artifacts are also provided. All analyses leverage Matlab simulations and targeted measurements from four prototype hardware digital chaotic communication systems.