448 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON CIRCUITS AND SYSTEMSII: EXPRESS BRIEFS, VOL. 59, NO.

7, JULY 2012
Design of a High-Data-Rate Differential
Chaos-Shift Keying System
Georges Kaddoum and Franois Gagnon
AbstractIn a differential chaos-shift keying (DCSK) system,
the reference and information chaotic bearing signals are trans-
mitted in two consecutive time slots and require the presence of
delay components in the modulator and demodulator circuits. This
system design requires a difcult-to-implement radio-frequency
delay line that limits the data rate. The code-shifted DCSK (CS-
DCSK) system proposes a solution for these problems by spread-
ing the two chaotic slots by Walsh codes instead of using a time
delay and sending them during the same time interval. In this
brief, we extend the study of the CS-DCSK system, and we design
two versions of a high-data-rate CS-DCSK system, which increase
the data rate and can also perform in a multiuser case. The idea
to achieve a high data rate is to get the information bits to share
the same reference chaotic slot, where their separation is assured
and maintained by different chaotic signals. In addition, this new
design is not limited to a restricted number of Walsh codes such as
CS-DCSK and provides from the properties of the chaotic signal
in terms of security and good correlation properties. Finally, the
performances of the systems are analyzed.
Index TermsAnalytical bit error rate (BER), chaotic modula-
tion, delay line, high-data-rate code-shifted differential chaos-shift
keying (HCS-DCSK).
I. INTRODUCTION
C
HAOTIC signals have recently begun to be used in digital
communication systems. This is mainly due to the fact
that chaotic signals are extremely easy to generate and offer
very good characteristics, such as the good correlation proper-
ties [1] required by spread-spectrum systems, and nonperiodic
random behavior, which increases transmission security [2] and
the immunity of the system to multipath degradation and self-
interference [1], [3].
Chaos-based communication systems can be classied into
two categories, i.e., coherent and noncoherent receivers. In co-
herent receivers, such as those using chaos-shift keying (CSK)
[1] and chaos-based direct-sequence code-division multiple
access [4], the chaotic signal is used as a spread sequence to
spread the data information signal, whereas on the receiver side,
code synchronization is required in order to demodulate the
transmitted bits. Synchronization techniques for chaos-based
Manuscript received December 1, 2011; revised February 17, 2012; accepted
May 3, 2012. Date of publication June 19, 2012; date of current version July 13,
2012. This work was supported in part by the Ultra Electronics TCS and in part
by the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada as part
of the High Performance Emergency and Tactical Wireless Communication
Chair at cole de Technologie Suprieure. This brief was recommended by
Associate Editor W.-P. Zhu.
The authors are with the LaCIME Laboratory, cole de Technologie
Suprieure, University of Qubec, Montreal, QC H3C 1K3, Canada (e-mail:
georges.kaddoum@lacime.etsmtl.ca; francois.gagnon@etsmtl.ca).
Color versions of one or more of the gures in this brief are available online
at http://ieeexplore.ieee.org.
Digital Object Identier 10.1109/TCSII.2012.2198982
spread-spectrum systems are proposed and discussed in [5].
On the other hand, in noncoherent receivers, such as those
using differential CSK (DCSK), chaotic synchronization is
not required on the receiver side in order to demodulate the
transmitted bits, which offer a good performance in multipath
channels [3].
The DCSK system receiver does, however, require an RF
delay line, which is not easy to implement because of the
wide bandwidth. An improvement of the frequency-modulated
DCSK system was studied in [6]. In another study to overcome
the problem of RF delay in DCSK systems, Xu and Wang
proposed a code-shifted DCSK (CS-DCSK) system [7]. In
their system, the reference and information-bearing signals are
separated by a Walsh code and then transmitted in the same
time slot. For such system, there is no need for a delay line at
the receiver end.
In this brief, the CS-DCSK system is extended to achieve
a high data rate by transmitting a multiple bit for one reference
slot. In our design, many spreading codes are needed to transmit
one symbol (multiple bits) of the high-data-rate CS-DCSK
(HCS-DCSK) system. The number of spreading codes signi-
cantly increases in a high data rate and a multiuser case. In their
design, the CS-DCSK system can suffer from the limitation
in the number of Walsh codes when the system is extended
to achieve a high data rate and perform in a multiuser case.
Furthermore, the orthogonal property of Walsh codes is lost in
a multipath channel and in asynchronous multiuser situations.
For these reasons, our proposed HCS-DCSK system uses a
chaotic sequence instead of a Walsh code. This choice is due
to the fact that, with this, we can generate an innite number
of very low cross-correlation sequences with variable lengths
[1]. In addition, by separating the reference and information-
bearing signals via different chaotic codes, the security of HCS-
DCSK can be increased. The HCS-DCSK system can benet
from the good properties of chaotic codes used in the spread-
ing spectrum, particularly in multiuser cases and in multipath
channels [1].
In this brief, we design two versions of HCS-DCSK, namely,
HCS-DCSK1 and HCS-DCSK2. We present the designs, fol-
lowed by evaluation of the performances under an additive
white Gaussian noise (AWGN) channel, and then, analytical
bit-error-rate (BER) expressions are then derived in mono- and
multiuser cases.
This brief is organized as follows: Section II presents the
design of the HCS-DCSK1 and HCS-DCSK2 systems. In
Section III, the performance and the analytical BER expression
are analyzed. Simulation results are reported in Section IV to
evaluate and discuss the performance of our systems and to
compare them with CS-CDSK, and nally, some conclusive
remarks are given in Section V.
1549-7747/$31.00 2012 IEEE
KADDOUM AND GAGNON: DESIGN OF A HIGH-DATA-RATE DCSK SYSTEM 449
Fig. 1. Block diagram of the rst version of the HCS-DCSK1 transmitter of
the uth user.
II. HCS-DCSK COMMUNICATION SYSTEM
As shown in [7], the CS-DCSK system does not require an
RF delay line, where the reference and information-bearing
chaotic wavelets are transmitted at the same time but, rather, are
separated by the orthogonal Walsh code. CS-DCSK is extended
to HCS-DCSK in our study in order to allow the transmission of
more than one information wavelet in a single symbol period.
In this multilevel modulation, only one reference slot is used in
each symbol period for many transmitted bits, and all informa-
tion waveforms are separated by chaotic codes. Throughout this
brief, a second-order Chebyshev polynomial function (CPF) is
chosen where chaotic samples c
k
belong to [1, 1], i.e.,
c
k+1
= 1 2c
2
k
. (1)
This map is chosen for the ease with which it generates
chaotic sequences. In addition, chaotic sequences are normal-
ized such that their mean values are all zero and their mean
squared values are unity, i.e., E[c
k
] = 0 and E[c
2
k
] = 1.
A. HCS-DCSK1
Fig. 1 shows the HCS-DCSK1 system. In this design, the
reference and information-bearing chaotic wavelets are trans-
mitted in the same slot. The different chaotic sequences used to
separate the information wavelets are obtained from different
generators or from the same generator but with different initial
conditions. In our system, only one type of chaotic map is used,
with different initial conditions. As shown in Fig. 1, the mth
bit of the jth symbol a
j,m
of HCS-DCSK1 with period T
s
is
multiplied rst by the chaotic signal slot c
j,k
and then separated
by an appropriate chaotic sequence w
j,m,k
. The resulting signal
is then added to the same reference chaotic signal slot c
j,k
.
A new chaotic sample (or chip) is generated for every time
interval equal to T
c
(c
k
= c(t kT
c
); the same goes for w
k
).
The spreading factor is equal to the number of chaotic samples
in the bit duration (T
s
= NT
c
). In Fig. 1, we can see that
the reference signal is not multiplied by a chaotic sequence,
which simplies the transmitter structure design and reduces
the interference noise variances computed later on in this brief.
The transmitted signal of the jth symbol of HCS-DCSK1 is
s
j
(t) =
N

k=1
c
j,k
+
M

i=1
a
j,i
N

k=1
c
j,k
w
j,i,k
, T
s
= NT
c
(2)
Fig. 2. Block diagram of the rst version of the HCS-DCSK1 receiver of the
mth bit of the jth symbol.
where M is the number of bits transmitted in each symbol of
HCS-DCSK1, T
c
is the time chip, N is the number of chips
used by bit, c
j,k
is the kth chip of the chaotic data bearing signal
to transmit the jth symbol, and w
j,i,k
represents the kth chip
chaotic chip of the spreading sequence of bit i of symbol j. The
received signal is given by
r(t) =
N

k=1
c
j,k
+
M

i=1
a
j,i
N

k=1
c
j,k
w
i,k
+n(t). (3)
Fig. 2 shows the structure of the HCS-DCSK1 receiver,
whose advantage over the traditional DCSK receiver lies in
its suppression of the delay lines; the CS-DCSK receiver for
its part has the advantage of requiring fewer multiplication
operations. The receiver signal is corrupted by an AWGN with
zero mean and variance equal to N
0
/2. As shown in Fig. 2,
to decode the mth bit of the jth symbol, the received signal
is rst multiplied by the corresponding chaotic sequence w
j,m
and then multiplied by the received signal r(t). Finally, the
resulting signal is summed over NT
c
, and bit a
j,m
is estimated
by computing the sign of the observation variable Z
j,m
.
For simplicity, lowerscript j will be omitted. The output of
the lower mixer is
A
m
=
_
N

k=1
c
k
+
M

i=1
a
i
N

k=1
c
k
w
i,k
+
N

k=1
n
k
_
N

k=1
w
m,k
A
m
=
_
a
m
N

k=1
c
k
w
2
m,k
+
M

i=1
i=m
a
i
N

k=1
c
k
w
m,k
w
i,k
+
N

k=1
w
m,k
c
k
+
N

k=1
w
m,k
n
m,k
_
.
As shown in Fig. 2, the observation signal of the mth bit
of the jth symbol is obtained by multiplying the output of the
lower mixer A
m
by the received signal r(t). The observation
signal of the HCS-DCSK1 system is given in (4), shown at the
bottom of the next page.
B. HCS-DCSK2 System
Looking at the observation signal given in (4), we see
that only the rst component 2a
m

N
k=1
c
2
k
w
2
m,k
is a useful
signal, whereas all others are interferences. Different interfer-
ence noises arise from different cross products of different
bits, reference signals, and Gaussian noises. Here, we propose
an improvement in the HCS-DCSK1 system performance by
reducing interference noises. As shown in Fig. 3, the idea is
to separate the information-bearing signals from the reference
signal by modulating the rst one onto in-phase (I) and the
450 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON CIRCUITS AND SYSTEMSII: EXPRESS BRIEFS, VOL. 59, NO. 7, JULY 2012
Fig. 3. Block diagram of the second version of the HCS-DCSK2 transmitter
of the uth user.
second one into quadrature (Q) signals. The transmitted signal
will be
s(t) =
M

i=1
a
i
N

k=1
c
k
w
i,k
cos(2f
0
t)
N

k=1
c
k
sin(2f
0
t) (5)
where f
0
is the carrier frequency.
At the receiver side, these two modulating signals can be de-
modulated using a coherent demodulator. Such a receiver mul-
tiplies the received signal separately with both cosine and sine
signals to produce the received estimates of the information-
bearing and reference signals, respectively. Because of the
orthogonality of the carrier signals, it is possible to detect the
modulating signals independently [8]. In our study, the sine
and cosine signals are normalized such that their variances are
equal to 1, and we assume that the local oscillator can correctly
achieve demodulation (perfect carrier recovery).
As shown in Fig. 4, after (I, Q) demodulation, the mth bit
of the jth symbol is decoded by multiplying the information-
bearing signal by the corresponding chaotic sequence w
j,m
.
The resulting signal is then multiplied by the reference signal
of the received signal. Finally, the resulting signal is summed
over NT
c
, and the bits are estimated by computing the sign of
the observation variable Z
m
.
In the HCS-DCSK2 system, the output of the lower mixer is
A
m
=
_

_a
m
N

k=1
c
k
w
2
m,k
+
M

i=1
i=m
a
i
N

k=1
c
k
w
m,k
w
i,k
+
N

k=1
w
m,k
n
I,k
_

_.
Fig. 4. Block diagram of the second version of the HCS-DCSK2 receiver of
the mth bit of the uth user.
The observation signal of the mth bit of the jth symbol is
given by
Z
m
=a
m
N

k=1
c
2
k
w
2
m,k
+
M

i=1
i=m
a
i
N

k=1
c
2
k
w
m,k
w
i,k
+
N

k=1
c
k
w
m,k
n
I,k
+a
m
N

k=1
n
Q,k
c
k
w
m,k
(w
m,k
+n
I,k
)
+
M

i=1
i=m
a
i
N

k=1
c
k
n
Q,k
w
m,k
w
i,k
(6)
where n
I,k
and n
Q,k
are the kth AWGN samples received with
phase signal I and quadrature signal Q, respectively.
III. PERFORMANCE ANALYSIS OF THE HCS-DCSK2
Since the second system has less noise interference, we
evaluated the performance of HCS-DCSK1 by simulation and
derived the analytical BER expression for the HCS-DCSK2
under the AWGN channel in mono- and multiuser cases. To
derive the analytical BERexpression, the mean and the variance
of the observation signal Z
m
must be evaluated. We should start
by mentioning some properties of chaotic signals that will be
used later in this brief to compute the mean and the variance
of the observation. The chaotic generator is very sensitive to
initial conditions, and we can deduce that the different chaotic
sequences are independent from each other. In addition, the
independence between the chaotic sequence and the Gaussian
noise is also true [1]. For the normalized CPF map with zero
mean, variance V (.) of higher order was computed in [1], where
V (x) = 1 and V (x
2
) = 0.5.
Z
m
=2a
m
N

k=1
c
2
k
w
2
m,k
+
M

i=1
i=m
a
i
N

k=1
c
2
k
w
m,k
w
i,k
+
N

k=1
c
2
k
w
m,k
+
N

k=1
c
k
w
m,k
n
k
+a
2
m
N

k=1
c
2
k
w
3
m,k
+
M

i=1
i=m
a
m
a
i
N

k=1
c
2
k
w
2
m,k
w
i,k
+
N

k=1
c
k
w
2
m,k
n
k
+
M

i=1
i=m
a
i
_
_
_a
m
N

k=1
c
2
k
w
i,k
w
2
m,k
+
M

i=1
i=m
a
i
N

k=1
c
2
k
w
m,k
w
2
i,k
+
N

k=1
c
2
k
w
i,k
w
m,k
+
N

k=1
c
k
w
i,k
w
m,k
n
k
_
_
_
+a
m
N

k=1
c
k
w
2
m,k
n
m,k
+
M

i=1
i=m
a
i
N

k=1
c
k
w
m,k
w
i,k
n
k
+
N

k=1
c
k
w
m,k
n
k
+
N

k=1
w
m,k
n
2
k
(4)
KADDOUM AND GAGNON: DESIGN OF A HIGH-DATA-RATE DCSK SYSTEM 451
Our performance computation is based on the Gaussian
approximation, which provides a good estimation of the per-
formance when the spreading factor is high [1], but when the
spreading factor is low, another approach is developed in [9],
which must be used to match the exact performance for a low
spreading factor.
Based on these aforementioned properties and considering
that the means of all signals are zero, the mean of the observa-
tion variable Z
m
of HCS-DCSK2 for the mth bit is
E[Z
m
] = a
m
NE
_
c
2
k
_
E
_
w
2
m,k
_
.
For normalized chaotic signals, the means product of
E[c
2
k
]E[w
2
m,k
] is equal to 1, then the mean of this observa-
tion is
E[Z
m
] = a
m
N = a
m
E
b
(7)
where E
b
= NE[c
2
k
]E[w
2
k
] is the bit energy, and for normalized
chaotic sequences, this energy is equal to the spreading factor.
Since the signals presented in the observation variable are
independent, this means that the different signal components of
the observation variable are independent as well, and the total
variance V [Z
m
] is equal to the sum of the different compo-
nents. For a given bit m, the total variance of the observation
variable is
V [Z
m
] =V (U)+V (B)+V (C)+V (D)+V (E)+V (F) (8)
where U, B, C, D, E, and F represent the different signal
components of (6), respectively. For a given bit m, component
U is a constant equal to a
m
N, and the variance of U is equal to
zero.
Based on the aforementioned properties of chaotic signals,
the other components can be easily computed. The variance of
B is equal to N(M 1) times the variance of V [c
2
k
w
m,k
w
i,k
],
which can be computed by
V
_
c
2
k
w
m,k
w
i,k

= V
_
c
2
k
w
m,k

E[w
i,k
]
+ V [w
i,k
]E
_
c
2
k
w
m,k

+V
_
c
2
k
w
m,k

V [w
i,k
]. (9)
The means of the chaotic signals are equal to zero (E[w
i,k
] =
0, E[c
2
k
w
m,k
] = 0), which can reduce the expression of the
variance to
V
_
c
2
k
w
m,k
w
i,k

=V
_
c
2
k
w
m,k

V [w
i,k
]
=V [w
i,k
]
_
V [w
m,k
]E
_
c
2
k

+V
_
c
2
k

V [w
m,k
]
_
=1(1 + 0.5). (10)
Finally, the variance of B is
V [B] = 1.5N(M 1). (11)
By analogy, variances C D E, and F are
V [C] =NN
0,I
/2; V [D] = 1.5NN
0,I
/2 (12)
V [D] =1.5NN
0,I
/2 (13)
V [E] =N(1.5N
0,Q
/2 +N
0,I
/2N
0,Q
/2) (14)
V [F] =N(M 1)N
0,Q
/2 (15)
where N
0,I
/2 and N
0,Q
/2 are the noise variances in I and Q
branches.
We assume that the transmitted bits are equiprobable and that
the probability distribution of the observation is Gaussian; the
BER of HCS-DCSK2 is then
BER =
1
2
erfc
_
E[Z
m
]
_
2V [Z
m
]
_
.
Finally, by replacing the mean and the variance by their
values, and after simplication, the nal BER expression in a
monouser case is
BER =
1
2
erfc

_
Eb
_
3(M 1) +N
0,I
+
N
0,Q
2
+
N
0,I
N
0,Q
2
+MN
0,Q
_.
(16)
A. Analytical BER in a Multiuser Case
This section extends the performance of HCS-DCSK2 to the
multiuser case. To simplify the analysis and to avoid repetition,
we just compute the variances derived from the multiuser
case. Since the independence condition is respected, the total
variance is the sum of the variance of V [Z
m
] computed earlier
and the variance derived from the multiuser case. To that end,
we consider that we decode the lth user, then we isolate the
multiuser signal par, and, nally, we compute its variance.
That is
Mu =
_
_
_
N

k=1
w
l,m,k
L

u=1
u=l
M

i=1
N

k=1
a
u,i
c
u,k
w
u,i,k
_
_
_

_
_
_
L

u=1
u=l
N

k=1
c
u,k
+
N

k=1
n
Qm,k
_
_
_
where L is the number of users. Given the chaotic signal
properties, the mean of variable Mu is equal to zero, and the
variance is computed in the same way as that of the observation
variable, i.e.,
V [Mu] = N
_
M(L 1) +M(L 2)(L 1)
+ 1.5M(L 1) +M(L 1)
N
O,Q
2
_
.
The nal BER expression in a multiuser case is
BER =
1
2
erfc
_
Eb
_
2 (V [B +C +D +E +F +Mu])
_
.
(17)
IV. SIMULATION
Fig. 5 shows the performance of CS-DCSK proposed in [7],
i.e., HCS-DCSK1 and HCS-DCSK2. Simulation results show
that HCS-DCSK2 outperforms the other systems because of
the low interferences. The useful signal at the output of the
452 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON CIRCUITS AND SYSTEMSII: EXPRESS BRIEFS, VOL. 59, NO. 7, JULY 2012
Fig. 5. Performance comparison between HCS-DCSK1, HCS-DCSK2, and
CS-DCSK systems in a monouser case and M = 1.
Fig. 6. Analytical BER of HCS-DCSK2 in mono- and multiuser cases for
different numbers of bits M, spreading factors, and numbers of users. Perfor-
mance comparison between HCS-DCSK1 and HCS-DCSK2 systems.
decision variable of HCS-DCSK1 is twice more powerful than
that of CS-DCSK, which leads to better performance than that
of CS-DCSK when the signal-to-noise ratio is low. Because of
the high interferences present in HCS-DCSK1, the CS-DCSK
system gives better performance when the Gaussian noise is
low in the channel. Finally, these two proposed systems permit
increasing the data rate and the number of users with lower
hardware complexity and give good performances compared
with the CS-DCSK system.
Fig. 6 plots the theoretical BER curves given in (17) and (16)
for HCS-DCSK2, with simulation results. We can see that we
have a perfect match between analytical results and simulations
for any number of bits, spreading factors, or numbers of users.
In addition, we compare the simulated performance of HCS-
DCSK1 with HCS-DCSK2 in a multiuser case, in order to
show the difference in performance between the two designs.
In conclusion, we can see that the second system outperforms
the rst. We can see also that, for higher spreading factor N,
the HCS-DCSK system gives better performance because the
noise interference is spread over a large band. The disadvantage
with the second system, however, is at the level of the channel
reservation for the reference signal. Some improvements can be
made in the future to improve the performance of HCS-DCSK1
and HCS-DCSK2, such as successive interference cancellation,
which will help the system reduce its interferences.
V. CONCLUSION
In this brief, we have presented an extension of the CS-
DCSK communication system to achieve a high data rate
in a multiuser case. Our systems provide a solution to the
disadvantage of the DCSK system by eliminating the delay
lines in both transmitter and receiver units. In our design,
we use chaotic codes to separate the different bits from one
another and from the reference signal. In the rst system, i.e.,
HCS-DCSK1, the reference signal is added with the carrier
information signals, whereas in the second design, the reference
is separated from the data signals by IQ modulation. Because
of its performance in the presence of low interference noises,
the second system was maintained to compute the analytical
BER expression in mono- and multiuser cases for the AWGN
channel. The performances of the CS-DCSK, HCS-DCSK1,
and HCS-DCSK2 systems are compared. The HCS-DCSK2
system performs better than the HCS-DCSK1 and CS-DCSK
systems. In addition, the HCS-DCSK1 system outperforms the
CS-DCSK system in the presence of a low signal-to-noise
ratio. Finally, the analytical BER expressions were veried by
simulation. The designs presented in this brief offer simpler and
cheaper implementations because no delay lines are required.
The interference cancellation algorithms are now under study
to improve more the existing performances.
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