Chaotic real-time encryption using systems of difference equations with large parameter spaces

We present a new class of discrete chaotic systems (i.e. chaotic maps) that can effectively encrypt information. The nonlinearity of these systems is achieved by designing proper piecewise linear functions and by using modulo operations. The chaotic maps are used as pseudo-noise generators and as the synchronization mechanism of a secure spread-spectrum communication system design. The potential for automatic synchronization, the lack of periodicity and the extremely large parameter spaces that our chaotic maps exhibit offer great advantages over the traditional Linear Feedback Shift Registers pseudo-noise generators for spread spectrum system design.