Opt Express. 2017 Mar 20;25(6):6511-6523. doi: 10.1364/OE.25.006511.

Real-time fast physical random number generator with a photonic integrated circuit.

Optics express

Kazusa Ugajin, Yuta Terashima, Kento Iwakawa, Atsushi Uchida, Takahisa Harayama, Kazuyuki Yoshimura, Masanobu Inubushi

PMID: 28380999 DOI: 10.1364/OE.25.006511

Abstract

Random number generators are essential for applications in information security and numerical simulations. Most optical-chaos-based random number generators produce random bit sequences by offline post-processing with large optical components. We demonstrate a real-time hardware implementation of a fast physical random number generator with a photonic integrated circuit and a field programmable gate array (FPGA) electronic board. We generate 1-Tbit random bit sequences and evaluate their statistical randomness using NIST Special Publication 800-22 and TestU01. All of the BigCrush tests in TestU01 are passed using 410-Gbit random bit sequences. A maximum real-time generation rate of 21.1 Gb/s is achieved for random bit sequences in binary format stored in a computer, which can be directly used for applications involving secret keys in cryptography and random seeds in large-scale numerical simulations.

Publication Types

• Journal Article