Entropy Model of Rosin Autonomous Boolean Network Digital True Random Number Generator

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

we should precise the aims of the paper in the abstract,

we have to present and discuss the diffirent FPGA model and develop more results and discussions

conclusion must be more impressive 

we should check plagiarism

we should use specific linkers and suitable ones. 

Author Response

Please see the attachment。

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Reviewer 2 Report

This manuscript presents an entropy model of TRNG based on Rosin Autonomous Boolean Network (ABN). The reviewer did not find any apparent flaw in the explanation of the weakness of existing models, the construction of the proposed model, and its validation. Basically the manuscript should be accepted.

The reviewer would like to leave some comments to improve this paper as follows.

1. In the authors' experiments, it is recommended to add an explanation of the way to measure the number of rising edges of the TRNG output signal. The authors explained that the number of edges was counted within a half period of the sampling signal (100 MHz) and the measured mean was about 128.6. This meant that the mean frequency of the TRNG output became 25.72 GHz! It is too high to be counted by a Cyclone FPGA. So the reviewer thinks that another method has been used.

2. The timescale of the captured waveform shown in Fig. 3 is missing.

3. In Table 3, the square root of the Allan variance should also be provided, e.g. 26.1913 (5.1177²), in order to avoid misunderstanding.

4. Some of the references are not complete: page number is missing; "NSA of China" becomes "of China, N.S.A."; "In Proceedings of the Proceedings of"; and so on.

The writing is basically fine, but some errors are found. Examples are as follows:

- l. 42: used a ABN -> used an ABN

- l. 54: paramaters are privided -> parameters are provided

Author Response

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Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Reviewer 3 Report

In this work, the authors presented an  entropy  model for autonomous Boolean networks.

The paper is well written and organized. 

Here are my comments:

use appropriate symbols for xor and xnor logic gates. The ones that are used are the adder symbols .

How the proposed model can be extended for other TRNGs to qualify the entropy of the generated signals? 

What are the limits of the proposed model? Does the number of nodes   affect  the accuracy of the proposed model? Please comment on this 

Please comment the results in Table 1. What is the number of tests that failed to get passed the NIST tests?

Author Response

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Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Reviewer 4 Report

March 1, 2024

 Review of the manuscript entitled:

Entropy Model of Rosin Autonomous Boolean Network Digital TRNG

By Yi Zong *, Lihua Dong, Xiaoxin Lu

Manuscript ID: electronics-2865455

General Comments

The quality of True Random Number Generators (TRNG) is very important, especially in the context of stream ciphers or generating the so-called "seeds" for symmetric ciphers. The construction of TRNGs are based on some phenomenon/physical system (e.g. electronics circuits) that exhibits random properties (possibly after some processing of the response of the physical system). To test the quality (randomness) of such generators, statistical test packages are used, including entropy evaluation based on sequences generated by TRNG. In this paper the entropy (in general the entropy rate) of TRNG of Rosin Autonomous Boolean Network with a possibility of determination appropriate parameters is analyzed. 

Major Comments

The results presented in the paper are interesting and of some value, but I have the following comments and concerns:

1. It is unclear what the Authors mean by “Entropy models”, do models means a definition of a type of entropy? There are a few definition of entropy, and the basic one in the case of application in cryptography is Shannon entropy.

2. In the paper the statement “Bi = (Bi-1 + Ri) mod 2, further simplified as Bi = Ri mod 2”, the Authors should justify this statement ?

3. Formula (8) is unclear; there is free index i on the right hand side while it is not on the left hand side ?

4. … similarly is with formula (9) and symbol b.

5. This should be clarified: “let Ri  be the number of rising edges of S0”

6. Taking into account formula (4) it is unclear, if expression (8) is a finite one.

7. How the Allan variance (13) was taken into account in formula (14)?

Minor Comment

a) Figure 1. TRNG of Rosin Autonomous Boolean Network, should be better described. What the nodes are represented.

b) Editorial form and English should be improved.

Final Comments

In my opinion, this paper could be of some value. However, taking into account the above comments, I do not recommend the paper for publication. I recommend Major Revision at least.

Author Response

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Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Round 2

Reviewer 3 Report

The authors addressed all my remarks and comments.

Reviewer 4 Report

The Authors appropriately addressed and corrected the manuscript taking into account my comments and concerns, therefore I recommend the article for publication.