Fundamentals of molecular information and communication science

© 1963-2012 IEEE. Molecular communication (MC) is the most promising communication paradigm for nanonetwork realization since it is a natural phenomenon observed among living entities with nanoscale components. Since MC significantly differs from classical communication systems, it mandates reinvestigation of information and communication theoretical fundamentals. The closest examples of MC architectures are present inside our own body. Therefore, in this paper, we investigate the existing literature on intrabody nanonetworks and different MC paradigms to establish and introduce the fundamentals of molecular information and communication science. We highlight future research directions and open issues that need to be addressed for revealing the fundamental limits of this science. Although the scope of this development encompasses wide range of applications, we particularly emphasize its significance for life sciences by introducing potential diagnosis and treatment techniques for diseases caused by dysfunction of intrabody nanonetworks

Design and Optimizing of On-Chip Kinesin Substrates for Molecular Communication

Lab-on-chip devices and point-of-care diagnostic chip devices are composed of many different components such as nanosensors that must be able to communicate with other components within the device. Molecular communication is a promising solution for on-chip communication. In particular, kinesin driven microtubule (MT) motility is an effective means of transferring information particles from one component to another. However, finding an optimal shape for these channels can be challenging. In this paper we derive a mathematical optimization model that can be used to find the optimal channel shape and dimensions for any transmission period. We derive three specific models for the rectangular channels, regular polygonal channels, and regular polygonal ring channels. We show that the optimal channel shapes are the square-shaped channel for the rectangular channel, and circular-shaped channel for the other classes of shapes. Finally, we show that among all 2 dimensional shapes the optimal design choice that maximizes information rate is the circular-shaped channel.Comment: accepted for publication in IEEE Transactions on Nanotechnolog

Modelling of multilayer biological medium under molecular communication paradigm

© 2017 IEEE. Molecular communication is an emerging paradigm that enables both the biological and synthetic nanomachines to communicate with each other within an aqueous biological environment such as the communication between living cells. Prediction of the number of drug molecules near a target site, e.g., tumor cells, is very important for determining the required drug dosages to increase positive therapeutic outcomes. In this paper, we derive an analytical expression for the received molecular signal in a multilayered biological environment. We also present development of particle-based simulator. We find the analytical results for three-layer biological medium compares well with the simulation results. The effect of the diffusion coefficient and the distance between the transmitter and the receiver (e.g., targeted cells) are also investigated

Information Rates of ASK-Based Molecular Communication in Fluid Media

This paper studies the capacity of molecular communications in fluid media, where the information is encoded in the number of transmitted molecules in a time-slot (amplitude shift keying). The propagation of molecules is governed by random Brownian motion and the communication is in general subject to inter-symbol interference (ISI). We first consider the case where ISI is negligible and analyze the capacity and the capacity per unit cost of the resulting discrete memoryless molecular channel and the effect of possible practical constraints, such as limitations on peak and/or average number of transmitted molecules per transmission. In the case with a constrained peak molecular emission, we show that as the time-slot duration increases, the input distribution achieving the capacity per channel use transitions from binary inputs to a discrete uniform distribution. In this paper, we also analyze the impact of ISI. Crucially, we account for the correlation that ISI induces between channel output symbols. We derive an upper bound and two lower bounds on the capacity in this setting. Using the input distribution obtained by an extended Blahut-Arimoto algorithm, we maximize the lower bounds. Our results show that, over a wide range of parameter values, the bounds are close.Comment: 31 pages, 8 figures, Accepted for publication on IEEE Transactions on Molecular, Biological, and Multi-Scale Communication

Computation of Time-dependent Probabilities of Vesicle Release and Binding of Neurotransmitters of Postsynaptic Neuron

302-305When a postsynaptic neuron receives a spike from the axon, its synapse releases neurotransmitters to the synaptic cleft. The probability of vesicle release depends on the amount of calcium ions. The concentration of calcium ions keeps on changing with time. The opening and closing of these channels is controlled by the calcium ion gates operating at different rates. Similarly, the binding of neurotransmitters to the membrane depends on the number of receptors. The existing literature considers probabilities of vesicle release and binding of neurotransmitters as constants. In practice, these two probabilities are time-dependent. This issue is addressed in this paper and new derivations of the time-varying nature of these two probabilities are obtained from simulation study and analysis. The present investigation of estimation of these two time-dependent probabilities will help to develop improved nanoscale neuronal communication models

Modulation Analysis in Macro-Molecular Communications

Molecular communication (MC) involves the transmission of information using particles (i.e., molecules). Research into the field has been dominated by micro-scale, and most of the effects of macro-scale communication have yet to be studied. In this paper, the modulation and transmission of MC at macro-scale are investigated. For the transmitter, an in-house-built odor generator was used, and as the detector, a mass spectrometer with a quadrupole mass analyzer was employed. Various 2-level, 4-level, and 8-level modulation schemes were tested experimentally. A simulation framework, developed for the first time, was used for comparison with the experimental results. It was shown that communication can be modeled using a variant of the advection-diffusion equation and that it gives good agreement with the experimental results. A symbol-error-rate (SER) analysis of both the experimental and simulation results was analyzed. It was found that increasing the distance has a detrimental effect on both the channel capacity and the SER, whereas velocity and diffusivity have a decreasing effect on the SER and an increasing effect on the channel capacity. A channel model was developed based on the asymmetric behavior of the communications, and the optimal sampling period was developed that subsequently permitted analysis of the ISI of the communications scheme