11,730 research outputs found
Capacity of Diffusion-based Molecular Communication with Ligand Receptors
A diffusion-based molecular communication system has two major components:
the diffusion in the medium, and the ligand-reception. Information bits,
encoded in the time variations of the concentration of molecules, are conveyed
to the receiver front through the molecular diffusion in the medium. The
receiver, in turn, measures the concentration of the molecules in its vicinity
in order to retrieve the information. This is done via ligand-reception
process. In this paper, we develop models to study the constraints imposed by
the concentration sensing at the receiver side and derive the maximum rate by
which a ligand-receiver can receive information. Therefore, the overall
capacity of the diffusion channel with the ligand receptors can be obtained by
combining the results presented in this paper with our previous work on the
achievable information rate of molecular communication over the diffusion
channel.Comment: Published in Information Theory Workshop 2011 (ITW '2011
On the Capacity of Diffusion-Based Molecular Communications with SiNW FET-Based Receiver
Molecular communication (MC) is a bio-inspired communication method based on
the exchange of molecules for information transfer among nanoscale devices.
Although MC has been extensively studied from various aspects, limitations
imposed by the physical design of transceiving units have been largely
neglected in the literature. Recently, we have proposed a nanobioelectronic MC
receiver architecture based on the nanoscale field effect transistor-based
biosensor (bioFET) technology, providing noninvasive and sensitive molecular
detection at nanoscale while producing electrical signals at the output. In
this paper, we derive analytical closed-form expressions for the capacity and
capacity-achieving input distribution for a memoryless MC channel with a
silicon nanowire (SiNW) FET-based MC receiver. The resulting expressions could
be used to optimize the information flow in MC systems equipped with
nanobioelectronic receivers.Comment: To be presented at IEEE EMBC 2016, Orlando, FL, US
On the Capacity of Level and Type Modulation in Molecular Communication with Ligand Receptors
In this paper, we consider the bacterial point-to-point communication problem
with one transmitter and one receiver by considering the ligand receptor
binding process. The most commonly investigated signalling model, referred to
as the Level Scenario (LS), uses one type of a molecule with different
concentration levels for signaling. An alternative approach is to employ
multiple types of molecules with a single concentration level, referred to as
the Type Scenario (TS). We investigate the trade-offs between the two scenarios
for the ligand receptor from the capacity point of view. For this purpose, we
evaluate the capacity using numerical algorithms. Moreover, we derive an upper
bound on the capacity of the ligand receptor using a Binomial Channel (BIC)
model using symmetrized Kullback-Leibler (KL) divergence. A lower bound is also
derived when the environment noise is negligible. Finally, we analyse the
effect of blocking of a receptor by a molecule of a different type, by
proposing a new Markov model in the multiple-type signalling.Comment: 18 pages, Accepted at ISIT conferenc
On the Capacity of Point-to-Point and Multiple-Access Molecular Communications with Ligand-Receptors
In this paper, we consider the bacterial point-to-point and multiple-access
molecular communications with ligand-receptors. For the point-to-point
communication, we investigate common signaling methods, namely the Level
Scenario (LS), which uses one type of a molecule with different concentration
levels, and the Type Scenario (TS), which employs multiple types of molecules
with a single concentration level. We investigate the trade-offs between the
two scenarios from the capacity point of view. We derive an upper bound on the
capacity using a Binomial Channel (BIC) model and the symmetrized
Kullback-Leibler (KL) divergence. A lower bound is also derived when the
environment noise is negligible. For the TS, we also consider the effect of
blocking of a receptor by a different molecule type. Then, we consider
multiple-access communications, for which we investigate three scenarios based
on molecule and receptor types, i.e., same types of molecules with Different
Labeling and Same types of Receptors (DLSR), Different types of Molecules and
Receptors (DMDR), and Same types of Molecules and Receptors (SMSR). We
investigate the trade-offs among the three scenarios from the total capacity
point of view. We derive some inner bounds on the capacity region of these
scenarios when the environment noise is negligible
A Comprehensive Survey of Recent Advancements in Molecular Communication
With much advancement in the field of nanotechnology, bioengineering and
synthetic biology over the past decade, microscales and nanoscales devices are
becoming a reality. Yet the problem of engineering a reliable communication
system between tiny devices is still an open problem. At the same time, despite
the prevalence of radio communication, there are still areas where traditional
electromagnetic waves find it difficult or expensive to reach. Points of
interest in industry, cities, and medical applications often lie in embedded
and entrenched areas, accessible only by ventricles at scales too small for
conventional radio waves and microwaves, or they are located in such a way that
directional high frequency systems are ineffective. Inspired by nature, one
solution to these problems is molecular communication (MC), where chemical
signals are used to transfer information. Although biologists have studied MC
for decades, it has only been researched for roughly 10 year from a
communication engineering lens. Significant number of papers have been
published to date, but owing to the need for interdisciplinary work, much of
the results are preliminary. In this paper, the recent advancements in the
field of MC engineering are highlighted. First, the biological, chemical, and
physical processes used by an MC system are discussed. This includes different
components of the MC transmitter and receiver, as well as the propagation and
transport mechanisms. Then, a comprehensive survey of some of the recent works
on MC through a communication engineering lens is provided. The paper ends with
a technology readiness analysis of MC and future research directions.Comment: Accepted for publication in IEEE Communications Surveys & Tutorial
A molecular communications model for drug delivery
This paper considers the scenario of a targeted drug delivery system, which
consists of deploying a number of biological nanomachines close to a biological
target (e.g. a tumor), able to deliver drug molecules in the diseased area.
Suitably located transmitters are designed to release a continuous flow of drug
molecules in the surrounding environment, where they diffuse and reach the
target. These molecules are received when they chemically react with compliant
receptors deployed on the receiver surface. In these conditions, if the release
rate is relatively high and the drug absorption time is significant, congestion
may happen, essentially at the receiver site. This phenomenon limits the drug
absorption rate and makes the signal transmission ineffective, with an
undesired diffusion of drug molecules elsewhere in the body. The original
contribution of this paper consists of a theoretical analysis of the causes of
congestion in diffusion-based molecular communications. For this purpose, it is
proposed a reception model consisting of a set of pure loss queuing systems.
The proposed model exhibits an excellent agreement with the results of a
simulation campaign made by using the Biological and Nano-Scale communication
simulator version 2 (BiNS2), a well-known simulator for molecular
communications, whose reliability has been assessed through in-vitro
experiments. The obtained results can be used in rate control algorithms to
optimally determine the optimal release rate of molecules in drug delivery
applications
On the Physical Design of Molecular Communication Receiver Based on Nanoscale Biosensors
Molecular communications (MC), where molecules are used to encode, transmit,
and receive information, is a promising means of enabling the coordination of
nanoscale devices. The paradigm has been extensively studied from various
aspects, including channel modeling and noise analysis. Comparatively little
attention has been given to the physical design of molecular receiver and
transmitter, envisioning biological synthetic cells with intrinsic molecular
reception and transmission capabilities as the future nanomachines. However,
this assumption leads to a discrepancy between the envisaged applications
requiring complex communication interfaces and protocols, and the very limited
computational capacities of the envisioned biological nanomachines. In this
paper, we examine the feasibility of designing a molecular receiver, in a
physical domain other than synthetic biology, meeting the basic requirements of
nanonetwork applications. We first review the state-of-the-art biosensing
approaches to determine whether they can inspire a receiver design. We reveal
that nanoscale field effect transistor based electrical biosensor technology
(bioFET) is a particularly useful starting point for designing a molecular
receiver. Focusing on bioFET-based molecular receivers with a conceptual
approach, we provide a guideline elaborating on their operation principles,
performance metrics and design parameters. We then provide a simple model for
signal flow in silicon nanowire (SiNW) FET-based molecular receiver. Lastly, we
discuss the practical challenges of implementing the receiver and present the
future research avenues from a communication theoretical perspective
Diffusion Based Molecular Communication: Principle, Key Technologies, and Challenges
Molecular communication (MC) is a kind of communication technology based on
biochemical molecules for internet of bio-nano things, in which the biochemical
molecule is used as the information carrier for the interconnection of
nano-devices. In this paper, the basic principle of diffusion based MC and the
corresponding key technologies are comprehensively surveyed. In particular, the
state-of-the-art achievements relative to the diffusion based MC are discussed
and compared, including the system model, the system performance analysis with
key influencing factors, the information coding and modulation techniques.
Meanwhile, the multi-hop nano-network based on the diffusion MC is presented as
well. Additionally, given the extensiveness of the research area, open issues
and challenges are presented to spur future investigations, in which the
involvement of channel model, information theory, self-organizing nano-network,
and biochemical applications are put forward
Effect of Degradation in Molecular Communication: Impairment or Enhancement?
In the nanonetworking literature, many solutions have been suggested to
enable the nanomachine-to-nanomachine communication. Among these solutions, we
focus on what constitutes the basis for molecular communication paradigms
--molecular communication via diffusion (MCvD). In this paper, we start with an
analytical modeling of a spherical absorbing receiver under messenger molecule
degradation and show that our formulations are in agreement with the simulation
results of a similar topology. Next, we identify how such signal
characteristics as pulse peak time and pulse amplitude are affected by
degradation. Indeed, we show analytically how in MCvD, signal shaping is
achieved through degradation. We also compare communication under messenger
molecule degradation with the case of no-degradation and electromagnetic
communication in terms of channel characteristics. Lastly, we evaluate the
communication performance of the scenarios having various degradation rates.
Here, we assess the system performance according to traditional network metrics
such as the level of inter-symbol interference, detection performance, bit
error rate, and channel capacity. Our results indicate that introducing
degradation significantly improves the system performance when the rate of
degradation is appropriately selected. We make a thorough analysis of the
communication scenario by taking into account different detection thresholds,
symbol durations, and communication distances
The Channel Capacity of Channelrhodopsin and Other Intensity-Driven Signal Transduction Receptors
Biological systems transduce signals from their surroundings through a myriad
of pathways. In this paper, we describe signal transduction as a communication
system: the signal transduction receptor acts as the receiver in this system,
and can be modeled as a finite-state Markov chain with transition rates
governed by the input signal. Using this general model, we give the mutual
information under IID inputs in discrete time, and obtain the mutual
information in the continuous-time limit. We show that the mutual information
has a concise closed-form expression with clear physical significance. We also
give a sufficient condition under which the Shannon capacity is achieved with
IID inputs. We illustrate our results with three examples: the light-gated
Channelrhodopsin-2 (ChR2) receptor; the ligand-gated nicotinic acetylcholine
(ACh) receptor; and the ligand-gated Calmodulin (CaM) receptor. In particular,
we show that the IID capacity of the ChR2 receptor is equal to its Shannon
capacity. We finally discuss how the results change if only certain properties
of each state can be observed, such as whether an ion channel is open or
closed.Comment: Accepted for publication in IEEE Transactions on Molecular,
Biological, and Multi-Scale Communication
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