In a digital communications system, data are transmitted from one location to another by mapping bit sequences to symbols, and symbols to sample functions of analog waveforms, The analog waveform passes through a bandlimited (possibly time-varying) analog channel, where the signal is distorted and noise is added. In a conventional system the analog sample functions sent through the channel are weighted sums of one or more sinusoids; in a chaotic communications system the sample functions are segments of chaotic waveforms, At the receiver, the symbol may be recovered by means of coherent detection, where all possible sample functions are known, or by noncoherent detection, where one or more characteristics of the sample functions are estimated, In a coherent receiver, synchronization is the most commonly used technique for recovering the sample functions from the received waveform, These sample functions are then used as reference signals for a correlator. Synchronization-based coherent receivers have advantages over noncoherent receivers in terms of noise performance, bandwidth efficiency (in narrow-band systems) and/or data rate (in chaotic systems). These advantages are lost if synchronization cannot be maintained, for example, under poor propagation conditions, In these circumstances, communication without synchronization may be preferable. In Part I, the theory and operation of conventional communications systems were surveyed and possible fields of application of chaotic communications were identified. In Part II, the theory of conventional telecommunications is extended to chaotic communications, chaotic modulation techniques and receiver configurations are surveyed, and chaotic synchronization schemes are described, In Part III, examples will be given of chaotic communications schemes with and without synchronization, and the performance of these schemes is evaluated in the contest of noisy, bandlimited channels.
