Optical Network Authentication through Rayleigh Backscattering Fingerprints of the Composing Fibers.

We propose a new method for network authentication, identification, and secure communication, using the optical physical unclonable function Challenge-Response (PUF-CRPs) database protocol. We investigated the database performance generated with the proposed protocol by identifying 150 networks ID. Different methods and strategies for generating and exerting PUF-based CRP databases are proposed and numerically validated. The proposed method may find applications for identification and security networks with different architectures.