Discrete time-varying delayed systems for secure communication

This paper presents a communication setup based on discrete-time delayed dynamical systems. The communication consists in encoding the information as a time-varying delay that is injected into the dynamics. The main point is the design of a suitable receiver achieving the deciphering because it cannot be performed as in the continuous-time case. As a clue to tackle the problem, the deciphering is reformulated as a modes detection problem for hybrid systems. The setup falls into the class of self-synchronizing stream ciphers and appears as a new architecture with potential benefits.