Complex-variable chaotic systems (CVCSs) have numerous advantages over real-variable chaotic systems in chaos communication due to their increased unpredictability, confidentiality, and the ease of implementation. Synchronization between the master and slave systems in CVCSs is key to achieving encryption and decryption. However, existing synchronization schemes for CVCSs require the amplitude of the chaotic signal to be much larger than that of the plaintext. Moreover, traditional chaotic masking of complete synchronization (CS) requires uniformity between the transmitter and receiver ends. Therefore, we propose a complex modified projective difference function synchronization (CMPDFS) of CVCSs to address these issues, where the modified projective matrix helps address the issues with the amplitude. The receiver end is reconstructed without uniformity of the transmitter. We design the CMPDFS controller and propose a new secure communication scheme for wireless sensor networks (WSNs). The basic principle is fundamentally different from traditional chaotic masking. Simulation results and security analysis demonstrate that the CMPDFS communication scheme has a large key space, high sensitivity to encryption keys, high security, and an acceptable encryption speed. Hence, the proposed scheme can improve the security of WSNs. Moreover, it also can be applied to similar communication systems.

In distribution energy systems (DESs), the information security plays an essential role. Real-time encryption techniques can guarantee the transmission rate and confidentiality simultaneously. We propose a novel real-time encryption algorithm for DESs. First, we construct a 13D chaotic system based on quaternion, Chua’s circuit and complex variables, and discuss the existence of the attractors and other chaotic characteristics. Secondly, based on the proposed complex chaotic system, a simple encryption algorithm is proposed to ensure the confidentiality of DESs. Finally, our algorithm is verified by the standard test image and monitoring pictures in DESs. The execution time of the proposed algorithm is 0.0035s and 0.0021s respectively. It is only one percent of other algorithms. At the same time, our other security performances are competitive with other algorithms. And it has the ability to resist the malicious attack and avoid unnecessary equipment shutdown in DESs.