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Journal of Optical Communications

High bit rate secure FSO system utilizing Hill coding

Adil Fadhil Mushatet, Elaf A. Fadil, Essam N. Abdulla

Published Jun 16, 2025• 9 citations
Publisher

Abstract

Abstract To the best of our knowledge, this study is the first to build a secure free space optical communication system with a high bit rate of 80 Gb/s wavelength division multiplexing using a Hill coding cipher. The signal message was encrypted by applying an algorithm secure coding. According to the obtained results, in the event of favorable weather (fog), the link distance was about 4.4 km. The link distance was degraded in the bad weather (dust) to become 1.4. Furthermore, the suggested system has a communication merit (bitrate product repeater distance) of roughly 352 Gb/s km in fog conditions and 112 Gb/s km in dust conditions. This is regarded as the highest communication merit when compared to prior attempts and investigations. The effectiveness of the proposed encryption cipher has also been evaluated by a revision of various security studies, key space, correlations, histogram analyses, and results comparison with other alternative approaches. When compared to earlier studies and researches, this is thought to have the best communication merit. In addition, According to the outcomes, integrating cryptographic encryption and decryption methods into FSO systems maintained data security and offered resistance to eavesdropping assaults.

DOI
10.1515/joc-2025-0147

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Abstract To the best of our knowledge, this study is the first to build a secure free space optical communication system with a high bit rate of 80 Gb/s wavelength division multiplexing using a Hill coding cipher. The signal message was encrypted by applying an algorithm secure coding. According to the obtained results, in the event of favorable weather (fog), the link distance was about 4.4 km. The link distance was degraded in the bad weather (dust) to become 1.4. Furthermore, the suggested system has a communication merit (bitrate product repeater distance) of roughly 352 Gb/s km in fog conditions and 112 Gb/s km in dust conditions. This is regarded as the highest communication merit when compared to prior attempts and investigations. The effectiveness of the proposed encryption cipher has also been evaluated by a revision of various security studies, key space, correlations, histogram analyses, and results comparison with other alternative approaches. When compared to earlier studies and researches, this is thought to have the best communication merit. In addition, According to the outcomes, integrating cryptographic encryption and decryption methods into FSO systems maintained data security and offered resistance to eavesdropping assaults.
In response to the increasing demands for reliable, fast, and secure communications beyond 5G scenarios, the high-capacity networks have become a focal point. Quantum communication is at the forefront of this research, offering unmatched throughput and security. A free space optics (FSO) communication system integrated with fiber-end is designed and investigated using the Bennett–Brassard 1984 quantum key distribution (BB84-QKD) protocol. Simulation results show that reliable transmission can be achieved over a 10–15 km fiber length with a signal power of −19.54 dBm and high optical-to-signal noise of 72.28–95.30 dB over a 550 m FSO range under clear air, haze, fog, and rain conditions at a data rate of 1 Gbps. Also, the system using rectilinearly and circularly polarized signals exhibits a Stokes parameter intensity of −4.69 to −35.65 dBm and −7.7 to −35.66 dBm Stokes parameter intensity, respectively, over 100–700 m FSO range under diverse weather conditions. Likewise, for the same scenario, an FSO range of 100 m incorporating 2.5–4 mrad beam divergence provides the Stokes power intensity of −6.03 to −11.1 dBm and −9.04 to −14.12 dBm for rectilinearly and circularly polarized signals, respectively. Moreover, compared to existing works, this work allows faithful and secure signal transmission in free space, considering FSO–fiber link losses.
Free-space optical (FSO) communication provides a promising alternative solution to the traditional radio frequency (RF) communications. Compared to the RF technology, there are many advantages of FSO communications, such as ultra-high bandwidth, license-free spectrum, low inter-channel interference, and energy-efficient transmission. The potential applications for FSO communication include the last-one-mile access link from the fiber-based backbone network, low earth orbit (LEO) satellite communications, high-altitude base station platforms or vehicles, deep-space communications, and in-building automation connections. As the FSO technology becomes mature and increasingly involved, the security and reliability requirements of such applications also become crucial. Regarding the security issues, although the FSO communication is inherently more secure than the RF counterpart due to high directivity of its line-of-sight (LOS) link, it can still suffer from optical wire-tapping attack. There are many different application schemes that an eavesdropper can still probe the FSO link. Traditionally, to protect the communication, many works have been done on encryption layer and upper network layer, such as computationally intensive cryptographic algorithms and message exchanging protocols. In recent years, physical-layer security (PLS) has been getting more attentions as it provides an extra layer of security against eavesdropping. The PLS schemes, in general can be categorized into two main categories: classical PLS and quantum key distribution (QKD) protocols. The classical PLS is based on the information theoretic security analysis, while the QKD security is guaranteed by the quantum mechanics laws. Both techniques have been studied for FSO channels. In the first half of this dissertation, we study the PLS in a LOS FSO channel using orbital angular momentum (OAM) multiplexing and show that higher secrecy capacity can be achieved using OAM multiplexing technology in the presence of atmospheric turbulence effects. Then, we proposed an adaptation scheme for QKD system over FSO channel with different QKD protocols, i.e. BB84 and decoy state protocols. By adapting the source brightness based on the channel condition, we optimized the secret key rate (SKR) of the QKD system. Furthermore, we proposed a multiple spatial modes-based QKD system with backpropagation method to increase the total SKR through parallel channels. Regarding the reliability of an optical communication system as well as information reconciliation for both PLS and QKD schemes, the forward error correction (FEC) becomes an essential technique to enable high-speed transmission. The FEC with low-density parity-check (LDPC) codes has been studied for decades from LDPC block codes to the most recent spatially-coupled (SC) LDPC codes. For FSO communications, due to the time-varying nature of FSO channels, the capability of rate adaptation is important to achieve a consistent reliable transmission. In the second half of this dissertation, we proposed unified FPGA-based architecture to implement both quasi-cyclic (QC) LDPC codes and SC-LDPC codes with rate adaptation capability. The performance is verified through FPGA emulation to show good error floor properties. To further validate the rate adaptation capability, we have built a spatial light modulator (SLM)-based FSO channel emulator to test the adaptive coding scheme. Furthermore, we have conducted a fiber-based experiment with our rate adaptative coding scheme to show that the proposed adaptive coding scheme can be also used in dynamic fiber-based networks.
Free Space Optical (FSO) communication has potential terrestrial and non-terrestrial applications. It allows large bandwidth for higher data transfer capacity. Due to its high directivity, it has a potential security advantage over traditional radio frequency (RF) communications. However, eavesdropping attacks are still possible in long non-terrestrial transmission FSO links, where the geometry of the link allows foreign flying objects such as Unmanned Aerial vehicles (UAVs) and drones to interrupt the links. This exposes non-terrestrial FSO links to adversary security attacks. Hence, data security techniques implementation is required to achieve immune FSO communication links. Unlike the commonly proposed physical layer security techniques, this paper presents a lab-based demonstration of a secured FSO communication link based on data cryptography using the GNU Radio platform and software-defined radio (SDR) hardware. The utilized encryption algorithm (Xsalsa20) in this paper requires high-time complexity to be broken by power-limited flying objects that interrupt the FSO beam. The results show that implementing cryptographic encryption techniques into FSO systems provided resilience against eavesdropping attacks and preserved data security. The experiment results show that, at a distance of 250 mm and laser output power of 10 mW, the system achieves a packet delivery rate of 92% and transmission rate of 10 Mbit/s. This is because the SDR used in this experiment requires a minimum received electrical amplitude of 27.5 mV to process the received signal. Long distance and higher data rates can be achieved using less sensitive SDR hardware.
The Free Space Optical Communication (FSOC) technology has gained widespread popularity due to its multitude of advantages. FSOC offers enhanced security due to its narrow beam, Line-of-Sight (LoS) nature, and resistance to Electromagnetic Interference (EMI). However, ensuring data confidentiality in case of interception is critical. This work demonstrates data encryption using the Advanced Encryption Standard-128 (AES-128) to secure FSOC links. An encrypted optical signal was transmitted over a 2 km link and successfully decrypted at the receiver, ensuring that intercepted data remains unintelligible without the decryption key. This approach enhances FSOC’s reliability for secure transmission of sensitive or confidential information.
Providing physical layer security at the lowest network layer in fiber-optic communication systems is a technical challenge worldwide. Here, we propose and experimentally demonstrate a pure hardware optical encryption scheme based on temporal spreading and self-feedback phase encryption for high-speed and long-distance physical-layer secure optical communication. A record high bit-rate-distance product of 6400 Gb/s km is successfully achieved by the secure transmission of a 32 Gb/s on-off-keying modulated confidential signal over a 200 km optical fiber link. The demonstrated scheme is fully compatible with conventional optical transmission systems and can be operated in a pluggable manner, which may pave a new path to ultra-high-speed physical-layer secure optical communication in the future.