Securing data networks using optical signal processing

Abstract

We propose and demonstrate the use of optical signal processing to enhance the security of data networks. Optical steganography is used to inhibit the observation and analysis of data traffic. With the use of optical CDMA, service interruption is prevented in the presence of infrastructure attacks. The soft blocking capability provides protection paths without the need of permanently reserving the bandwidth. Optical CDMA also provides a large size of code set that reduces the probability of interception of the secure signal by an eavesdropper. Finally, all-optical data encryption is demonstrated that prevents side-channel attacks and enables real-time encryption.