Researchers at Raman Research Institute (RRI), India collaborated with the University of Rennes, France to develop and demonstrate a new technique of decrypting encrypted information. Previously done electronically, this one uses optical technology for complex processes like demodulation. It has been approved by the peer-reviewed open access scientific journal, Nature Communications.
Crux of the Matter
What is Optical Encryption? It is a means of securing in-flight data in the transport layer of the network as it is carried over optical waves across fiber-optic cables. Optical encryption delivers maximum throughput without impacting performance and transparent transport of any protocol without additional hardware, as the solution integrates directly into the network element. This translates into a low-latency encryption solution which is more bandwidth-efficient and does not require a separate network appliance. Thus encryption of in-flight data at the optical layer has significant advantages over traditional encryption solutions that operate at higher layers of the network. The high-capacity data is subsequently protected as it crosses cities, countries, and borders, across 10G, 100G, and 200G waves.
The Story Behind the Discovery Prof Hema Ramachandran, along with a team of scientists at the Light and Matter Physics group at RRI and collaborators, provided a means of demodulation. For this, experiments were carried out in the real fog, both in France and in India. It had two components: the concept and the device, after which a prototype was built. The Department of Science and Technology, which funds RRI, said in a statement, “This speeds up the process significantly, and full demodulated images are obtained instantaneously upon recording a single frame using an ordinary digital camera. The technology is called FAST-QUAD (Full-field All-optical Single-shot Technique for Quadrature Demodulation).”
What it is Capable of Doing? The aforementioned technology has the potential for encrypting and decrypting images, surveillance, navigation under poor visibility, optically imaging through tissues and underwater vision. It can also open up possibilities for 3D ranging and imaging, optical communications, food quality analysis, and specialized scientific instrumentation. Two related international patents were filed last week and are currently in the final stages of processing. Currently, they face numerous practical challenges like the need for phase synchronization, timing jitters, inability to perform snapshot operation, and difficulty in frequency tuning.
A TOI article on recent research by RRI scientist and collaborators that led to a novel technology to decrypt data optically. This has potential applications ranging from surveillance to food quality analysis. https://t.co/ikfGfBDToF — Raman Research Inst. (@RRI_Bangalore) February 20, 2020
Curiopedia
Encryption in cryptography is the process of encoding a message or information in such a way that only authorized parties can access it and those who are not authorized cannot. Encryption does not itself prevent interference but denies the intelligible content to a would-be interceptor. In an encryption scheme, the intended information or message, referred to as plaintext, is encrypted using an encryption algorithm–a cipher–generating ciphertext that can be read-only if decrypted. For technical reasons, an encryption scheme usually uses a pseudo-random encryption key generated by an algorithm. It is in principle possible to decrypt the message without possessing the key, but, for a well-designed encryption scheme, considerable computational resources and skills are required. An authorized recipient can easily decrypt the message with the key provided by the originator to recipients but not to unauthorized users. There are two types of keys: Symmetric and private. More Info
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