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Molecular Communications
Roumit Basera
CS 555
04/14/16
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Small Networks
• What if tiny networks existed with thousands of devices?
• The devices
▫ Work together to accomplish a complex task
▫ Sensitive to environmental changes
▫ Self-replicating
▫ Work as an ad-hoc network
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Biological Community
Blood Cells
Community of Bacteria
• The cellular structures of organisms use communication networks
• Molecules are used to communicate
Image Citations: http://www.procurementprofessionals.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/red-blood-cells-800x450.jpg
http://s3.amazonaws.com/media.wbur.org/wordpress/12/files/2012/06/062012-01.jpg
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What is Molecular Communication?
• Molecular communication is a method
based on diffusion, inspired by biological
systems, and useful over transmission
distances in the nanometer to micrometer
range.
•Molecular communications systems use the
presence or absence of a selected type of
molecule to digitally encode messages. The
molecules are delivered into
communications media such as air and water
for transmission
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Diffusion
•Diffusion is the net passive movement of particles (molecules) from a region in which
they are in higher concentration to regions of lower concentration.
•The different molecular communication techniques can be classified according to the
type of molecule propagation in diffusion-based communication.
Image Citation: http://www.revisioncentre.co.uk/gcse/biology/diffusion.gif
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Diffusion – based Molecular Communication
In Diffusion – based Molecular Communication:
•The molecules propagate through spontaneous diffusion in a fluidic medium.
•The molecules can be subject solely to the laws of diffusion or can also be affected by
non-predictable turbulence present in the fluidic medium.
•Pheromonal communication, when pheromones are released into a fluidic medium,
such as air or water, is an example of diffusion-based architecture
Image Citation: http://www.revisioncentre.co.uk/gcse/biology/diffusion.gif
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Nano-machines
• Small scale devices that either already exist in nature (cells) or are artificially
synthesized from biological materials (genetically engineered cells or bio-silicon
hybrid devices programmed to produce bio-chemical reactions)
Image Citations: https://lxinnovations.files.wordpress.com/2012/03/nanomachines.jpg
http://www.paultergeist.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2009/07/nano-machines.jpg
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Nano-machine Communication
• Traditional communication methods are not feasible, such as the use of
electromagnetic waves
• Information is encoded to and decoded from molecules
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How Molecular Communication Works
•Molecules are transmitted between sender and receiver nano-machines, similar to TCP
connections
1.
The receiver sends a molecule as a
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to notify the sender to stop transmitting
connection setup signal to the sender so
that the sender begins transmitting
Eventually the receiver sends a molecule signal
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A suitable transmission rate is found during the
process between the sender and receiver to avoid
molecules
congestion just as in TCP congestion control
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Sender transmits molecules
3.
Molecules propagate through diffusion
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Over time, the receiver absorbs a certain
number of molecules through its receptors
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Explicit acknowledgements are not used (to
avoid worsening communication throughput)
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Instead, feedback signal molecules are sent by
the receiver to throttle the transmission rate at
the sender nano-machine
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Why is Molecular Communication important?
• There are areas where electromagnetic waves are not as useful in communication,
such as:
▫ Tunnels
▫ Pipelines
▫ Deep, underground structures
▫ Body Organs
• Chemical signals provide more efficiency for transmitting sensor data, such as the
integrity of a structure or health of cells
• Molecular communication signals do not suffer from the constraints of
electromagnetic signals, such as the ratio of antenna size to the wavelength of a
signal
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Molecular Communication Applications
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=39oEgkIThHU
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Future Goals
• Health Industry
▫ Nanomedicine
▫ Tissue Engineering
• Environment
▫ Monitoring and quality control
• Military
▫ Biochemical sensing
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References
1.
Nakano, T. (2015). A network architecture and protocols for molecular communication – a
biologically inspired nanoscale networking paradigm. Retrieved from
http://download.microsoft.com/download/0/6/e/06edd57e-d607-43c5-ba3d3c8f609c6b80/core-project6-web-nakano.pdf
2.
Felicetti, L., Femminella, M., Reali, G., Nakano, T., & Vasilakos, A. V. (2014, June 17).
TCP-like molecular communications. Retrieved from http://arxiv.org/pdf/1406.4259.pdf
3.
(2013, December 18). Text message using vodka: molecular communication can aid
communication underground, underwater or inside the body. Phys.org. Retrieved from
http://phys.org/news/2013-12-messages-molecules-aid-underground-underwater.html