Book excerpt: Chaotic Signals in Digital Communications combines fundamental background knowledge with state-of-the-art methods for using chaotic signals and systems in digital communications. The book builds a bridge between theoretical works and practical implementation to help researchers attain consistent performance in realistic environments. It shows the possible shortcomings of the chaos-based communication systems proposed in the literature, particularly when they are subjected to non-ideal conditions. It also presents a toolbox of techniques for researchers working to actually implement such systems. A Combination of Tutorials and In-Depth, Cutting-Edge Research Featuring contributions by active leading researchers, the book begins with an introduction to communication theory, dynamical systems, and chaotic communications suitable for those new to the field. This lays a solid foundation for the more applied chapters that follow. A Toolbox of Techniques—Including New Ways to Tackle Channel Imperfections The book covers typical chaos communication methods, namely chaotic masking, chaotic modulation, chaotic shift key, and symbolic message bearing, as well as bidirectional communication and secure communication. It also presents novel methodologies to deal with communication channel imperfections. These tackle band-limited channel chaos communication, radio channels with fading, and the resistance of a special chaotic signal to multipath propagations. In addition, the book addresses topics related to engineering applications, such as optical communications, chaotic matched filters and circuit implementations, and microwave frequency-modulated differential chaos shift keying (FM-DCSK) systems. Insights for Both Theoretical and Experimental Researchers Combining theory and practice, this book offers a unique perspective on chaotic communication in the context of non-ideal conditions. Written for theoretical and experimental researchers, it tackles the practical issues faced in implementing chaos-based signals and systems in digital communications applications.