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Nature Communications

Temporal spying and concealing process in fibre-optic data transmission systems through polarization bypass

P.-Y. Bony, Massimiliano Guasoni, P. Morin, Dominique Sugny, Antonio Picozzi, Hans Rudolf Jauslin, Stéphane Pitois, Julien Fatome

Published Aug 19, 2014• 47 citations
Publisher

Abstract

Recent research has been focused on the ability to manipulate a light beam in such a way to hide, namely to cloak, an event over a finite time or localization in space. The main idea is to create a hole or a gap in the spatial or time domain so as to allow for an object or data to be kept hidden for a while and then to be restored. By enlarging the field of applications of this concept to telecommunications, researchers have recently reported the possibility to hide transmitted data in an optical fibre. Here we report the first experimental demonstration of perpetual temporal spying and blinding process of optical data in fibre-optic transmission line based on polarization bypass. We successfully characterize the performance of our system by alternatively copying and then concealing 100% of a 10-Gb s(-1) transmitted signal.

DOI
10.1038/ncomms5678

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Recent research has been focused on the ability to manipulate a light beam in such a way to hide, namely to cloak, an event over a finite time or localization in space. The main idea is to create a hole or a gap in the spatial or time domain so as to allow for an object or data to be kept hidden for a while and then to be restored. By enlarging the field of applications of this concept to telecommunications, researchers have recently reported the possibility to hide transmitted data in an optical fibre. Here we report the first experimental demonstration of perpetual temporal spying and blinding process of optical data in fibre-optic transmission line based on polarization bypass. We successfully characterize the performance of our system by alternatively copying and then concealing 100% of a 10-Gb s(-1) transmitted signal.
Summary form only given. Due to a growing demand of security in transmission systems, recent research have been focus on the ability to manipulate a light beam in such a way to hide, namely to cloak, an event over a finite time or localization in space. The main idea is to create a hole or a gap in the spatial or time domain so as to allow for an object or a data to be kept hidden for a while and then to be restored [1-2]. Here we experimentally demonstrate a new type of temporal cloaking based on the ability for an arbitrary polarized light beam to self-organize and trap its state of polarization (SOP) in an optical fiber and then, to self-scramble in a reverse manner. We analyze the performance of our system by alternatively spying and then cloaking a 10Gbit/s signal propagating in an optical fiber and threaten by an attempt of hacking though an optical parametric based copying process. We successfully show that a quasi-annihilation of the probing operation (cloaking mode) or alternatively an error-free copying process (spying mode) can be achieved, both modes being independent from the incident SOP. The principle is illustrated in Fig. 1a. After travelling through a transmission system, an incident signal reaches the cloaking/spying zone with an arbitrary SOP. At this point, a continuous wave (cw) probe is then used to attempt a copy of the transmitted signal through a fiber optical parametric amplifier (FOPA). Since parametric process in optical fiber is highly polarization dependent, the conversion efficiency towards the copy wave (i.e. the idler) is strongly dependent on the incident signal SOP, which in usual situation where SOP randomly fluctuates, does not allow any kind of stable processing. Nevertheless, a successful cloaking or spying operation could be performed if one can trap the incident signal SOP orthogonal or parallel to the probe state. Here, this operation of polarization trapping is realized by means of an all-optical Omnipolarizer (OP) [3] in which self-organization of light SOP is spontaneously achieved by means of a counter-propagating four-wave mixing between the signal beam and its own backward replica generated through a reflective-loop [3]. As a consequence, in the cloaking zone, if the OP traps the signal SOP orthogonally to the probe state, no idler is generated and the signal remains hidden. At the opposite, if the OP locks the incident signal SOP parallel to the probe state, a maximal idler is then generated and the signal is kept hacked independently of its input SOP. Finally, to keep a transparent operation for the user, polarization randomness of the signal is restored thanks to a second Omnipolarizer, in which a high power backward replica induces the self-polarization process to become chaotic, leading to the unexpected behavior of the device to play the role of all-optical scrambler.Γ
Recent research on time cloaking has revealed a fascinating approach to hide temporal events from an interrogating optical field, by opening up and subsequently closing intensity gaps in a probe beam. Experiments thus far have demonstrated temporal cloaking of nonlinear interactions and high-speed optical data. Here we report a temporal cloak with the new capability not only to hide optical data, but also to concurrently transmit it along another wavelength channel for subsequent readout, masking the information from one observer while directing it to another. Additionally, the cloak succeeds in passing modulated data unscathed through a scrambling event, providing a new form of tampering resistance. Both examples launch a paradigm shift in temporal cloaking: instead of using time cloaks primarily to disrupt communication, we show how they can also improve data transmission, in turn greatly widening the range of possible applications in telecommunications.
Recent research has revealed a significant ability to manipulate and control a light beam to hide events in time-domain. Achieving highly functional temporal cloaking, which open up and subsequently close intensity gaps in the probe beam to conceal events from the observer with satisfied performances, are still difficult in optical fiber communication. Here, we propose and experimentally demonstrate a temporal cloak system based on ultra-short-pulse generation and time-domain fraunhofer diffraction. We succeed in hiding 83 percent of the whole time axis and cloak pseudorandom dark return-to-zero data bitrate at 10 Gbit/s. The four states of temporal cloaking and condition of cloaking off have been investigated in this paper.
Erasing the past is now easier thanks to the latest time cloak, which conceals events instead of objects. The device can't cloak large-scale events such as a bank robbery but it can hide data flowing through an optical fibre, which could allow secret messages to be sent without a trace. Time cloaks work by slowing down light in an optical fibre, creating a gap in the beam. Any outside light that enters the hole becomes cloaked when the original beam is sped up. It's as if the original beam has been stitched back together like a spliced movie, hiding any record that the extra scene ever happened
We introduce and experimentally demonstrate a flexible temporal illusion at telecommunication data rate in optical fiber communication system. The temporal illusion cannot only transform an event to another event as expected, but also mask the event with high-level signal, providing a novel method to conceal the confidential information. We successfully transform the output temporal waveforms of a return-to-zero (RZ), dark RZ and nonreturn-to-zero (NRZ) event into that of any above modulation format event and high-level signal at different illusion bits and mosaic bits at a data rate of 5 Gb/s, respectively. Our works offer us new perspectives on illusion optics for falsifying event rather than object, which has potential applications in secure communication, data encryption and other military applications.