7. Linear Autonomous Finite Automata
Renji Tao
Institute of Software, Chinese Academy of Sciences
Beijing 100080, China trj@ios.ac.cn
Summary.
Autonomous finite automata are regarded as sequence generators. For
the general case, the set of output sequences of an autonomous finite
automaton consists of ultimately periodic sequences and is closed under
translation operation. From a mathematical viewpoint, such sets have been
clearly characterized, although such a characterization is not very useful
to cryptology. On the other hand, nonlinear autonomous finite automata
can be linearized. So we confine ourself to the linear case in this chapter.
Notice that each linear autonomous finite automaton with output dimen-
sion 1 is equivalent to a linear shift register and that linear shift registers
as a special case of linear autonomous finite automata have been so in-
tensively and extensively studied. In this chapter, we focus on the case of
arbitrary output dimension. After reviewing some preliminary results of
combinatory theory, we deal with representation, translation, period, and
linearization for output sequences of linear autonomous finite automata.
A result of decimation of linear shift register sequences is also presented.
Key words: autonomous finite automata, linear shift register, root repre-
sentation, translation, period, linearization, decimation
Autonomous finite automata are regarded as sequence generators. For the
general case, the set of output sequences of an autonomous finite automa-
ton consists of ultimately periodic sequences and is closed under translation
operation. From a mathematical viewpoint, such sets have been clearly char-
acterized, although such a characterization is not very useful to cryptology.
On the other hand, nonlinear autonomous finite automata can be linearized.
So we confine ourself to the linear case in this chapter. Notice that each lin-
ear autonomous finite automaton with output dimension 1 is equivalent to a
linear shift register and that linear shift registers as a special case of linear au-
tonomous finite automata have been so intensively and extensively studied.