Experimental study of impulsive synchronization of chaotic and hyperchaotic circuits

In this paper, experimental results on impulsive synchronization of two kinds of chaotic circuits; namely, Chua's oscillator and a hyperchaotic circuit, are presented. To impulsively synchronize two Chua's oscillators, synchronization impulses sampled from one state variable of the driving circuit are transmitted to the driven circuit. To impulsively synchronize two hyperchaotic circuits, synchronizing impulses sampled from two signals of the driving circuit are sent to the driven circuit. Our experimental results show that the accuracy of impulsive synchronization depends on both the period and the width of the impulse. The ratio between the impulse width and impulse period for "almost-identical" synchronization increases as the impulse period increases. The robustness of impulsive synchronization to additive noise is also experimentally studied. For sufficiently short impulse periods, no significant differences are observed between impulsive and continuous synchronizations. The performance of chaotic spread spectrum communication systems based on impulsive synchronization is also studied experimentally.