Communication by Means of Thermal Noise: Towards Networks with Extremely Low Power Consumption

TL;DR

This paper introduces thermal noise communication (TherCom) as a low-power network paradigm, exploring theoretical foundations, designs, and error performance of noise-based transmission methods like KLJN and Thermod schemes.

Contribution

It presents novel thermal noise-driven transmission techniques, extending backscatter and RIS-based methods towards zero-signal-power communication with detailed theoretical and simulation analysis.

Findings

Noise variance detection reliably extracts information from noise signals.

Sample variance estimation with optimized thresholds improves detection accuracy.

TherCom schemes enable ultra-low power communication with promising theoretical and simulation results.

Abstract

In this paper, the paradigm of thermal noise communication (TherCom) is put forward for future wired/wireless networks with extremely low power consumption. Taking backscatter communication (BackCom) and reconfigurable intelligent surface (RIS)-based radio frequency chain-free transmitters one step further, a thermal noise-driven transmitter might enable zero-signal-power transmission by simply indexing resistors or other noise sources according to information bits. This preliminary paper aims to shed light on the theoretical foundations, transceiver designs, and error performance derivations as well as optimizations of two emerging TherCom solutions: Kirchhoff-law-Johnson-noise (KLJN) secure bit exchange and wireless thermal noise modulation (TherMod) schemes. Our theoretical and computer simulation findings reveal that noise variance detection, supported by sample variance estimation with carefully optimized decision thresholds, is a reliable way of extracting the embedded information from noise modulated signals, even with limited number of noise samples.