OAM based physical layer security using hybrid free-space optical-terahertz technology

1. A communications system employing a hybrid free-space optical (FSO) terahertz (THz) physical layer security scheme comprising:

a transmitter including:

a binary-to-nonbinary converter that converts an input binary sequence;

a non-binary LDPC encoder that encodes the nonbinary symbols and provides parity symbols to a mapper/modulator;

a multidimensional mapper that maps the nonbinary symbols; and

a free space optical and THz transmitter for transmitting the symbols via a FSO and THz channel(s) respectively, said THz transmitter including a circular antenna segmented into N segments, with each segment carrying the same RF signal but with an incremental phase shift of 2πn/N;

a receiver including:

a FSO and a THz receiver for receiving transmissions on the FSO and THz channel(s) respectively;

a nonbinary a posteriori probability (APP) demapper which receives any data from the FSO and THz receivers and the mapped/modulated parity symbols from the mapper/demodulator, said APP calculates symbol log-likelihood ratios (LLRs); and

a nonbinary LDPC decoder that receives the LLRs and outputs any corrected symbols transmitted

wherein the system employs N orbital angular momentum (OAM) modes in an optical domain;

wherein nonbinary LDPC codes are chosen such that any information symbols remain intact while generalized parity-symbols are algebraically related to the information symbols;

wherein the information symbols are transmitted over the FSO and THz channels while the generalized parity symbols are transmitted over classical channel(s);

wherein multidimensional signaling is used exclusively over the FSO channels and THz channels;

wherein operating wavelength of the FSO is one selected from the group consisting of: 1550 nm, 2 μm, 3.85 μm, and visible; and

wherein THz frequencies employed is one selected from the group consisting of 150 GHz and 250 GHz.