Chaotic communication on a satellite formation flying—The synchronization issue in a scenario with transmission delays

Chaos-based communication schemes have drawn increasing attention in the last years. The intrinsic complexity embedded on the chaotic dynamics with its hallmark property of sensitive dependence on initial conditions provides a masterful framework that can be exploited to develop remarkably fast, efficient and robust communication systems at low cost. As so, they can be used to support intensive communication among process distributed over a network, which is the scenario that may exist when the concept of satellite formation flying is used. In this configuration, the set of satellites operates as a “massive virtual” satellite with a very large capability that would require a huge, complex and expensive monolithic satellite. In this work, we analyze a key issue to accomplish a chaotic based communication system—the synchronization among the communication agents. To allow communication, all of the agents must have their chaotic dynamics synchronized with each other. However, in a scenario involving a satellite formation flying, it is necessary to deal with substantial signal delays on the communication among the satellites. These delays impose severe restrictions or even do not allow the accomplishment of the synchronization process if common strategies are used. Here, we propose an approach that allows to properly obtain synchronization among the communication agents on the satellites of the formation, despite the communication delays. It is based on the optimal linear feedback control theory and takes in consideration the “mean field” of the population of chaotic oscillators.