Odor-Based Molecular Communications: State-of-the-Art, Vision, Challenges, and Frontier Directions

Humankind mimics the processes and strategies that nature has perfected and uses them as a model to address its problems. That has recently found a new direction, i.e., a novel communication technology called molecular communication (MC), using molecules to encode, transmit, and receive information. Despite extensive research, an innate MC method with plenty of natural instances, i.e., olfactory or odor communication, has not yet been studied with the tools of information and communication technologies (ICT). Existing studies focus on digitizing this sense and developing actuators without inspecting the principles of odor-based information coding and MC, which significantly limits its application potential. Hence, there is a need to focus cross-disciplinary research efforts to reveal the fundamentals of this unconventional communication modality from an ICT perspective. The ways of natural odor MC in nature need to be anatomized and engineered for end-to-end communication among humans and human-made things to enable several multi-sense augmented reality technologies reinforced with olfactory senses for novel applications and solutions in the Internet of Everything (IoE). This paper introduces the concept of odor-based molecular communication (OMC) and provides a comprehensive examination of olfactory systems. It explores odor communication in nature, including aspects of odor information, channels, reception, spatial perception, and cognitive functions. Additionally, a comprehensive comparison of various communication systems sets the foundation for further investigation. By highlighting the unique characteristics, advantages, and potential applications of OMC through this comparative analysis, the paper lays the groundwork for exploring the modeling of an end-to-end OMC channel, considering the design of OMC transmitters and receivers, and developing innovative OMC techniques

Analytical characterisation of the terahertz in-vivo nano-network in the presence of interference based on TS-OOK communication scheme

The envisioned dense nano-network inside the human body at terahertz (THz) frequency suffers a communication performance degradation among nano-devices. The reason for this performance limitation is not only the path loss and molecular absorption noise, but also the presence of multi-user interference and the interference caused by utilising any communication scheme, such as time spread ON—OFF keying (TS-OOK). In this paper, an interference model utilising TS-OOK as a communication scheme of the THz communication channel inside the human body has been developed and the probability distribution of signal-to-interference-plus-noise ratio (SINR) for THz communication within different human tissues, such as blood, skin, and fat, has been analyzed and presented. In addition, this paper evaluates the performance degradation by investigating the mean values of SINR under different node densities in the area and the probabilities of transmitting pulses. It results in the conclusion that the interference restrains the achievable communication distance to approximate 1 mm, and more specific range depends on the particular transmission circumstance. Results presented in this paper also show that by controlling the pulse transmission probability and node density, the system performance can be ameliorated. In particular, SINR of in vivo THz communication between the deterministic targeted transmitter and the receiver with random interfering nodes in the medium improves about 10 dB, when the node density decreases one order. The SINR increases approximate 5 and 2 dB, when the pulse transmitting probability drops from 0.5 to 0.1 and 0.9 to 0.5

The piranha genome provides molecular insight associated to its unique feeding behavior

The piranha enjoys notoriety due to its infamous predatory behavior but much is still not understood about its evolutionary origins and the underlying molecular mechanisms for its unusual feeding biology. We sequenced and assembled the red-bellied piranha (Pygocentrus nattereri) genome to aid future phenotypic and genetic investigations. The assembled draft genome is similar to other related fishes in repeat composition and gene count. Our evaluation of genes under positive selection suggests candidates for adaptations of piranhas’ feeding behavior in neural functions, behavior, and regulation of energy metabolism. In the fasted brain, we find genes differentially expressed that are involved in lipid metabolism and appetite regulation as well as genes that may control the aggression/boldness behavior of hungry piranhas. Our first analysis of the piranha genome offers new insight and resources for the study of piranha biology and for feeding motivation and starvation in other organisms