Understanding the dynamics of complex systems defined in the sense of Caputo, such as fractional differences, is crucial for predicting their behavior and improving their functionality. In this paper, the emergence of chaos in complex dynamical networks with indirect coupling and discrete systems, both utilizing fractional order, is presented. The study employs indirect coupling to produce complex dynamics in the network, where the connection between the nodes occurs through intermediate fractional order nodes. The temporal series, phase planes, bifurcation diagrams, and Lyapunov exponent are considered to analyze the inherent dynamics of the network. Analyzing the spectral entropy of the chaotic series generated, the complexity of the network is quantified. As a final step, we demonstrate the feasibility of implementing the complex network. It is implemented on a field-programmable gate array (FPGA), which confirms its hardware realizability.
Keywords: Caputo-like difference operator; FPGA; chaos; complex systems; fractional calculus; indirect coupling; spectral entropy.