Scrambler

A scrambler (or randomizer) can be either:

1. An algorithm that converts an input string into a seemingly random output string of the same length (e.g., by pseudo-randomly selecting bits to invert), thus avoiding long sequences of bits of the same value; in this context, a randomizer is also referred to as a scrambler.
2. An analog or digital source of unpredictable (i.e., high entropy), unbiased, and usually independent (i.e., random) output bits. A "truly" random generator may be used to feed a (more practical) deterministic pseudo-random random number generator, which extends the random seed value.

There are two main reasons why scrambling is used:

• To enable accurate timing recovery on receiver equipment without resorting to redundant line coding. It facilitates the work of a timing recovery circuit (see also clock recovery), an automatic gain control and other adaptive circuits of the receiver (eliminating long sequences consisting of '0' or '1' only).
• For energy dispersal on the carrier, reducing inter-carrier signal interference. It eliminates the dependence of a signal's power spectrum upon the actual transmitted data, making it more dispersed to meet maximum power spectral density requirements (because if the power is concentrated in a narrow frequency band, it can interfere with adjacent channels due to the intermodulation (also known as cross-modulation) caused by non-linearities of the receiving tract).

Scramblers are essential components of physical layer system standards besides interleaved coding and modulation. They are usually defined based on linear-feedback shift registers (LFSRs) due to their good statistical properties and ease of implementation in hardware.

It is common for physical layer standards bodies to refer to lower-layer (physical layer and link layer) encryption as scrambling as well.[1][2] This may well be because (traditional) mechanisms employed are based on feedback shift registers as well. Some standards for digital television, such as DVB-CA and MPE, refer to encryption at the link layer as scrambling.

The first voice scramblers were invented at Bell Labs in the period just before World War II. These sets consisted of electronics that could mix two signals or alternatively "subtract" one signal back out again. The two signals were provided by a telephone and a record player. A matching pair of records was produced, each containing the same recording of noise. The recording was played into the telephone, and the mixed signal was sent over the wire. The noise was then subtracted out at the far end using the matching record, leaving the original voice signal intact. Eavesdroppers would hear only the noisy signal, unable to understand the voice.

One of those, used (among other duties) for telephone conversations between Winston Churchill and Franklin D. Roosevelt was intercepted and unscrambled by the Germans. At least one German engineer had worked at Bell Labs before the war and came up with a way to break them. Later versions were sufficiently different that the German team was unable to unscramble them. Early versions were known as "A-3" (from AT&T Corporation). An unrelated device called SIGSALY was used for higher-level voice communications.

The noise was provided on large shellac phonograph records made in pairs, shipped as needed, and destroyed after use. This worked, but was enormously awkward. Just achieving synchronization of the two records proved difficult. Post-war electronics made such systems much easier to work with by creating pseudo-random noise based on a short input tone. In use, the caller would play a tone into the phone, and both scrambler units would then listen to the signal and synchronize to it. This provided limited security, however, as any listener with a basic knowledge of the electronic circuitry could often produce a machine of similar-enough settings to break into the communications.

It was the need to synchronize the scramblers that suggested to James H. Ellis the idea for non-secret encryption, which ultimately led to the invention of both the RSA encryption algorithm and Diffie–Hellman key exchange well before either was reinvented publicly by Rivest, Shamir, and Adleman, or by Diffie and Hellman.

The latest scramblers are not scramblers in the truest sense of the word, but rather digitizers combined with encryption machines. In these systems the original signal is first converted into digital form, and then the digital data is encrypted and sent. Using modern public-key systems, these "scramblers" are much more secure than their earlier analog counterparts. Only these types of systems are considered secure enough for sensitive data.

Voice inversion scrambling can be as simple as inverting the frequency bands around a static point to various complex methods of changing the inversion point randomly and in real time and using multiple bands.

The "scramblers" used in cable television are designed to prevent casual signal theft, not to provide any real security. Early versions of these devices simply "inverted" one important component of the TV signal, re-inverting it at the client end for display. Later devices were only slightly more complex, filtering out that component entirely and then adding it by examining other portions of the signal. In both cases the circuitry could be easily built by any reasonably knowledgeable hobbyist. (See Television encryption.)

Electronic kits for scrambling and descrambling are available from hobbyist suppliers. Scanner enthusiasts often use them to listen in to scrambled communications at car races and some public-service transmissions. It is also common in FRS radios. This is an easy way to learn about scrambling.

The term "scrambling" is sometimes incorrectly used when jamming is meant.

Descramble in cable television context is the act of taking a scrambled or encrypted video signal that has been provided by a cable television company for premium television services, processed by a scrambler and then supplied over a coaxial cable and delivered to the household where a set-top box reprocesses the signal, thus descrambling it and making it available for viewing on the television set. A descrambler is a device that restores the picture and sound of a scrambled channel. A descrambler must be used with a cable converter box to be able to unencrypt all of the premium & pay-per-view channels of a Cable Television System.

• DVB framing structure, channel coding and modulation for 11/12 GHz satellite services (EN 300 421)
• V.34 ITU-T recommendation
• INTELSAT Earth Station Standard IESS-308
•  This article incorporates public domain material from Federal Standard 1037C. General Services Administration. Archived from the original on 2022-01-22. (in support of MIL-STD-188).