A communication theoretical analysis of FRET-based mobile ad hoc molecular nanonetworks

Evaluation of Non-Coherent Signal Detection Techniques for Mobile Molecular Communication

In recent years, there have been more and more research on molecular communication (MC). Because the deployment of mobile nanomachines may be required in some applications of MC, research on mobile MC has become a trend. The signal detection schemes for static MC are no longer applicable due to the time varying channel impulse response (IR), which is caused by the mobile characteristics of nanomachines. In this paper, a low complexity and non-coherent detection scheme is proposed for mobile scenario, which is based on the energy difference between two adjacent symbols. Most of the existing signal detection methods do not consider inter-symbol interference (ISI). Compared with those methods, the proposed scheme can achieve signal detection utilizing ISI without knowing channel state information (CSI). The bit error rate (BER) performance of the proposed method is investigated under different conditions through simulations. Besides, the influence of mobility features of nanomachines on the signal detection accuracy is also investigated in detail. The simulation results demonstrate that the BER performance of the proposed scheme outperforms the latest signal detection scheme for short-distance mobile MC system with high velocity. Consequently, the detection scheme proposed in this paper can reduce the influence of nanomachines' mobility and has the potential to be used in mobile MC systems.

Mobile Two-Way Molecular Communication via Diffusion Using Amplify-and-Forward and Analog Network Coding

Mobile molecular communication via diffusion (MCvD) has attracted lots of attentions due to its time-varying channels. In this paper, we investigate a mobile two-way MCvD model, which consists of two mobile source nanomachines and a mobile relay nanomachine. The amplify-and-forward (AF) relaying and analog network coding (ANC) are utilized to implement the exchange of information between two source nanomachines in this model. To explore the performance of the mobile two-way MCvD system, we first adopt the depleted molecule shift keying (D-MoSK) modulation, and then the mathematical expressions of symbol error probability (SEP) and mutual information are derived by using AF and ANC scheme on the basis of maximum a posteriori (MAP) probability detection. Finally, we present the numerical and simulation results. Compared with the AF-No-ANC scheme which is without use of ANC scheme, the scheme of combining AF and ANC can significantly improve the performance of SEP and mutual information. Moreover, the D-MoSK modulation outperforms the molecule shift keying (MoSK) modulation for this mobile two-way MCvD system. In addition, we propose the evaluation and discussion about the impacts of several important parameters on the performance of this system. These results can be used to design mobile two-way MCvD system with lower SEP and higher mutual information.

Low-Complexity Adaptive Signal Detection for Mobile Molecular Communication

Currently, most of the researches in molecular communication (MC) domain focus on the static MC scenarios. However, some envisioned important MC applications require mobile MC system. The investigation on mobile MC, especially the signal detection of mobile MC is limited. This work considers the problem of signal detection for mobile MC scenarios where the receiver nano-machine performs random movement. Due to the random movement of the receiver, the channel impulse response (CIR) changes over time which makes the received signal stochastic and complicated. This further complicates the signal detection in mobile MC and leads to that the state-of-the-art signal detection schemes for static MC scenarios fail for the mobile MC scenarios. To solve this issue, an adaptive detection scheme has been proposed by our group previously, based on dynamic estimation of the stochastically varying distance between the transmitter and receiver and the reconstruction of CIR in each interval. However, its computational complexity is high. Limited capability of current nano-machines desire low-complexity detection algorithm. In this work, we further propose an adaptive detection scheme for mobile MC with a low computational complexity by utilizing the local convex property of the CIR. With on-off keying (OOK) modulation, the signal of symbol "1" presents local convex property while that of symbol "0" presents local concave property. The convexity extent varies with the stochastic distance. A simple indicator, local maximum convexity is proposed which adapts to the stochastic distance. By comparing the adaptive indicator with an adaptive threshold within each symbol interval, the signal is detected without the need to estimate the stochastically changing distance or to reconstruct the CIR. Therefore, the computational load is effectively reduced. Numerical simulations are performed to evaluate the proposed scheme. The results show that the proposed scheme achieves good detection accuracy with low computational complexity and it could be a promising detection scheme for mobile MC scenarios.

Optimal Transmitted Molecules and Decision Threshold for Drift-Induced Diffusive Molecular Channel With Mobile Nanomachines

We study a drift-induced diffusive mobile molecular communication system where source, destination and cooperative nanomachines follow the one-dimensional Brownian motion. For information exchange from source nanomachine to receiver nanomachine, both direct and decode-forward (DF) relay-assisted cooperative paths are considered. The closed-form expressions for the probabilities of detection and false alarm are derived at the cooperative and destination nanomachines considering the multiple-source interference (MSI) and the inter-symbol-interference (ISI). The closed-form expressions for end-to-end average probability of error, and maximum achievable rate are also obtained. Moreover, to achieve minimum expected probability of error the optimum number of molecules to be transmitted from transmitter and optimal detection threshold in receiver nanomachine are found. The analytical expressions are validated through particle-based and Monte-Carlo simulation methods.

Towards Concurrent Data Transmission: Exploiting Plasmid Diversity by Bacterial Conjugation

The progress of molecular communication (MC) is tightly connected to the progress of nanomachine design. State-of-the-art states that nanomachines can be built either from novel nanomaterials by the help of nanotechnology or they can be built from living cells which are modified to function as intended by synthetic biology. With the growing need of the biomedical applications of MC, we focus on developing bio-compatible communication systems by engineering the cells to become MC nanomachines. Since this approach relies on modifying cellular functions, the improvements in the performance can only be achieved by integrating new biological properties. A previously proposed model for molecular communication is using bacteria as information carriers between transmitters and receivers, also known as bacterial nanonetworks. This approach has suggested encoding information into the plasmids inserted into the bacteria which leads to extra overhead for the receivers to decode and analyze the plasmids to obtain the encoded information. Another scheme, which is proposed in this paper, is to determine the digital information transmitted based on the quantity of bacteria emitted. While this scheme has its simplicity, the major drawback is the low-data rate resulting from the long propagation of the bacteria. To improve the performance, this paper proposes a distributed modulation scheme utilizing three bacterial properties, namely, engineering of plasmids, conjugation, and bacterial motility. In particular, genetic engineering allows us to engineer the different combinations of genes representing the different series of bits. When compared with binary density modulation and the M-ary density modulation, it is shown that the distributed modulation scheme outperforms the other two approaches in terms of bit error probability as well as the achievable rate for varying quantity of bacteria transmitted, distances, as well as time slot length.

On Modeling Information Spreading in Bacterial Nano-Networks Based on Plasmid Conjugation

In the last years, nano-communications have attracted much attention as a newly promising research field. In particular, molecular communications, which exploit molecular nodes, are a powerful tool to implement communication functionalities in environments where the use of electromagnetic waves becomes critical, e.g., in the human body. In molecular communications, molecules such as proteins, DNA and RNA sequences are used to carry information. To this aim a novel approach relies on the use of genetically modified bacteria to transport enhanced DNA strands, called plasmids, where information can be encoded. Information transfer is thus based on bacteria motility, i.e., self-propelled motion, which under appropriate circumstances is exhibited by certain bacteria. It has been observed that bacteria motility presents many similarities with opportunistic forwarding. Currently the few studies on opportunistic communications among bacteria are based on simulations only. In this paper we propose an analytical model to characterize information spreading in bacterial nano-networks. To this purpose, an epidemic approach, similar to those used to model Delay Tolerant Networks (DTNs), is employed. We also derive two mathematical models which slightly differ. The first describes bacterial nano-networks where a single plasmid is disseminated according to an epidemic approach; the second, takes into account more complex mechanisms where multiple plasmids are disseminated as in realistic bacterial nano-networks. Numerical results being obtained are finally shown and discussed.

Fluorescent molecules as transceiver nanoantennas: the first practical and high-rate information transfer over a nanoscale communication channel based on FRET

Nanocommunications via Förster Resonance Energy Transfer (FRET) is a promising means of realising collaboration between photoactive nanomachines to implement advanced nanotechnology applications. The method is based on exchange of energy levels between fluorescent molecules by the FRET phenomenon which intrinsically provides a virtual nanocommunication link. In this work, further to the extensive theoretical studies, we demonstrate the first information transfer through a FRET-based nanocommunication channel. We implement a digital communication system combining macroscale transceiver instruments and a bulk solution of fluorophore nanoantennas. The performance of the FRET-based Multiple-Input and Multiple-Output (MIMO) nanocommunication channel between closely located mobile nanoantennas in the sample solution is evaluated in terms of Signal-to-Noise Ratio (SNR) and Bit Error Rate (BER) obtained for the transmission rates of 50 kbps, 150 kbps and 250 kbps. The results of the performance evaluation are very promising for the development of high-rate and reliable molecular communication networks at nanoscale.

FRET-based nanoscale point-to-point and broadcast communications with multi-exciton transmission and channel routing

Nanoscale communication based on Förster Resonance Energy Transfer (FRET) enables nanoscale single molecular devices to communicate with each other utilizing excitons generated on fluorescent molecules as information carriers. Based on the point-to-point single-exciton FRET-based nanocommunication model, we investigate the multiple-exciton case for point-to-point and broadcast communications following an information theoretical approach and conducting simulations through Monte Carlo approach. We demonstrate that the multi-exciton transmission significantly improves the channel reliability and the range of the communication up to tens of nanometers for immobile nanonodes providing high data transmission rates. Furthermore, our analyses indicate that multi-exciton transmission enables broadcasting of information from a transmitter nanonode to many receiver nanonodes pointing out the potential of FRET-based communication to extend over nanonetworks. In this study, we also propose electrically and chemically controllable routing mechanisms exploiting the strong dependence of FRET rate on spectral and spatial characteristics of fluorescent molecules. We show that the proposed routing mechanisms enable the remote control of information flow in FRET-based nanonetworks. The high transmission rates obtained by multi-exciton scheme for point-to-point and broadcast communications, as well as the routing opportunities make FRET-based communication promising for future molecular computers.