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Optics Express

Temporal phase mask encrypted optical steganography carried by amplified spontaneous emission noise

Ben Wu, Zhenxing Wang, Bhavin J. Shastri, Matthew P. Chang, Nicholas A. Frost, Paul R. Prucnal

Published Jan 9, 2014• 37 citations
Publisher

Abstract

A temporal phase mask encryption method is proposed and experimentally demonstrated to improve the security of the stealth channel in an optical steganography system. The stealth channel is protected in two levels. In the first level, the data is carried by amplified spontaneous emission (ASE) noise, which cannot be detected in either the time domain or spectral domain. In the second level, even if the eavesdropper suspects the existence of the stealth channel, each data bit is covered by a fast changing phase mask. The phase mask code is always combined with the wide band noise from ASE. Without knowing the right phase mask code to recover the stealth data, the eavesdropper can only receive the noise like signal with randomized phase.

DOI
10.1364/oe.22.000954

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A temporal phase mask encryption method is proposed and experimentally demonstrated to improve the security of the stealth channel in an optical steganography system. The stealth channel is protected in two levels. In the first level, the data is carried by amplified spontaneous emission (ASE) noise, which cannot be detected in either the time domain or spectral domain. In the second level, even if the eavesdropper suspects the existence of the stealth channel, each data bit is covered by a fast changing phase mask. The phase mask code is always combined with the wide band noise from ASE. Without knowing the right phase mask code to recover the stealth data, the eavesdropper can only receive the noise like signal with randomized phase.
We propose and experimentally demonstrate an optical steganography method in which a data signal is transmitted using amplified spontaneous emission (ASE) noise as a carrier. The ASE serving as a carrier for the private signal has an identical frequency spectrum to the existing noise generated by the Erbium doped fiber amplifiers (EDFAs) in the transmission system. The system also carries a conventional data channel that is not private. The so-called "stealth" or private channel is well-hidden within the noise of the system. Phase modulation is used for both the stealth channel and the public channel. Using homodyne detection, the short coherence length of the ASE ensures that the stealth signal can only be recovered if the receiver closely matches the delay-length difference, which is deliberately changed in a dynamic fashion that is only known to the transmitter and its intended receiver.
Abstract We summarize the principle and experimental setup of optical steganography based on amplified spontaneous emission (ASE) noise. Using ASE noise as the signal carrier, optical steganography effectively hides a stealth channel in both the time domain and the frequency domain. Coherent detection is used at the receiver of the stealth channel. Because ASE noise has short coherence length and random phase, it only interferes with itself within a very short range. Coherent detection requires the stealth transmitter and stealth receiver to precisely match the optical delay,which generates a large key space for the stealth channel. Several methods to further improve optical steganography, signal to noise ratio, compatibility with the public channel, and applications of the stealth channel are also summarized in this review paper.
We propose and experimentally demonstrate a wavelength-division multiplexed (WDM) optical stealth transmission system carried by amplified spontaneous emission (ASE) noise. The stealth signal is hidden in both time and frequency domains by using ASE noise as the signal carrier. Each WDM channel uses part of the ASE spectrum, which provides more flexibility to apply stealth transmission in a public network and adds another layer of security to the stealth channel. Multi-channel transmission also increases the overall channel capacity, which is the major limitation of the single stealth channel transmission based on ASE noise. The relations between spectral bandwidth and coherence length of ASE carrier have been theoretically analyzed and experimentally investigated.
Temporal phase modulation of spread stealth signals is proposed and demonstrated to improve optical steganography transmission privacy. After phase modulation, the temporally spread stealth signal has a more complex spectral-phase-temporal relationship, such that the original temporal profile cannot be restored when only dispersion compensation is applied to the temporally spread stealth signals. Therefore, it increases the difficulty for the eavesdropper to detect and intercept the stealth channel that is hidden under a public transmission, even with a correct dispersion compensation device. The experimental results demonstrate the feasibility of this approach and display insignificant degradation in transmission performance, compared to the conventional stealth transmission without temporal phase modulation. The proposed system can also work without a clock transmission for signal synchronization. Our analysis and simulation results show that it is difficult for the adversary to detect the existence of the stealth transmission, or find the correct phase mask to recover the stealth signals.
The threat and defend model of optical steganography based on amplified spontaneous emission noise is experimentally demonstrated. Although the optical delays in a steganography system generate large key space to hide and recover the stealth signals, delays in interferometer introduce spectral fringes that can be identified by the coherent detection attack and thus expose the stealth channel. To defend such attacks, the spectral fringes are removed by with stealth data rate that is beyond the response speed of the coherent detection. Experimental results show that the spectral signatures can be protected by both wideband property of spontaneous emission noise and setting up the optical delays and data rate within the secure range. Such defending method can guide the design of a secure optical steganography system.