Since the 1970's, there has been a great deal of research effort spent on studying chaotic systems and the properties of the chaotic signals generated. Characterized by their wideband, impulse-like autocorrelation and low cross-correlation properties, chaotic signals are useful spread-spectrum signals for carrying digital information. Spectrum spreading has become one of the most popular modulation techniques for high-speed wireless communications. It makes use of signals of very wide bandwidth to carry information at relatively low data rates, and possesses advantages such as low probability of interception, resistance to jamming, multiple-access capability and mitigation to multipath effect, which are particularly important in a wireless scenario. In addition to enjoying the aforementioned benefits, chaotic signals can be generated using simple circuitries, thus lowering the cost of transceivers.

Early study of chaos-based communication systems was focused on a single-user case. In the past few years, more effort has been put on investigating systems with multiple-access capability, which is a key feature of spread-spectrum communication systems. Digital Communications with Chaos presents a detailed study of some multiple-access schemes used for chaos-based communications, and evaluates their performance. In addition, the effectiveness of the multiuser detection techniques, whose primary objective is to reduce interference between users and hence improve performance, is evaluated in the context of multiple-access digital communication systems.

• Hot research topic
• Describes communication technologies for the future
• Authors among the pioneers researching in chaos-based communications