The Challenges of the Internet of Nano
Things
Sasitharan Balasubramaniam (Sasi)
(sasi.bala@tut.fi)
Nano Communication Centre
Department of Electronics and Communications
Engineering
Tampere University of Technology
Department of Communications Engineering
Outline
• Nanotechnology
• Nanomachines
• Nano Communications
• Molecular Communications
• Internet of Nano Things (IoNT)
• Applications of IoNT
• Plans for Horizon2020
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Nanotechnology
• Concept was first proposed by Richard Feyman in
1959 in his nobel prize acceptance speech
•
“Plenty of room at the bottom”
• Nanotechnology are devices on the scale of the
order of one billionth of a meter(10-9)
• Example materials: Graphene, Nanocrystallites,
Nanoparticles
• Numerous healthcare applications
• Improved monitoring of chronic diseases
• Accurate drug delivery
• Nanorobots that can perform surgery
• Other applications include Aeronautics,
Environmental Science
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Nanomachine to treat cancer
• Issue with current chemotherapy is
that drugs kill good cells
• Aim – deliver drug to targeted
areas
•
Cut the dosage down by hundred –
thousand times
• Developed at the University of
California, Los Angeles (UCLA)
• Honeycomb nanostructure that
holds the drug particles
• Valves releases particles.
Numerous approaches:
•
•
Chemical agent
Light
http://www.rsc.org
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DNA Nanorobot
• Developed at Wyss Institute
• Robotic device developed from
DNA
•
DNA origami – 3D shapes created
from folding DNA
• Two halves connected with a
hinge, and shut using DNA latches
• The latches can be designed to
recognize certain cell proteins and
disease markers
• Hold molecules with encoded
instructions (antibody fragments)
•
Used on two types of cancer cells
(leukemia and lymphoma)
http://wyss.harvard.edu
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Problems and Challenges
• Scale of nanodevices allows us to….
• Reach hard to access areas…..
• Access vital information at a whole new level (molecular
information)…..
• Devices of the future will be built from nanomaterials
• Limitation – limited functionalities!!
• Communication and networking between nanomachines would further
advance their capabilities and functionalities
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What is the answer…..???
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Nano Communications!
• Two broad Areas…………
o Electromagnetic (EM) Nano Communications
o Molecular Communications
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Molecular Communication
Nanomachine
Bacteria
I. F. Akyildiz, F. Brunetti, C. Blasquez, “Nanonetworks: A New Communication Paradigm”, Computer Networks, 52, 2008
• Sender nanomachines encode information into information molecules
(e.g. DNA, proteins, peptides)
• Information can be transmitted through diffusion or active transport
• Ability to create communication systems and networks using biological
components and processes that are found in nature
• Interdisciplinary research (nanotechnology, communication technology,
biochemistry, molecular biology)
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Diffusion-based Molecular
Communications
• Communication is performed
through diffusion of molecules
• Information is embedded into
the molecules
• Ideally this is suited to fluidic
medium
I. F. Akyildiz, J.M. Jornet, M. Pierobon,,"Nanonetworks: A New Frontier in Communications," Communications of the
ACM, vol. 54, no. 11, pp. 84-89, November 2011.
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Bacteria Communication
Nanonetworks (1)
Bacteria can hold genetic information
(plasmids)
Mess. 2
Mess. 1
Bacteria can swim – possible attraction
through the process of chemotaxis
M. Eisenbach, “Bacterial Chemotaxis”, Encyclopedia of Life
Sciences, 2001
λRandom
A
Chemoattractant
B
20μm
λBiased
L. C. Cobo-Rus, I. F. Akyildiz, "Bacteria-based Communication in Nanonetworks", Nano Communication Networks, vol. 1, no. 4, pp.
244-256, December 2010.
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DTN Bacteria Nanonetworks
Opportunistic multi-hop routing in bacteria nanonetworks using chemotaxis and
conjugation.
Each Bacteria is akin to a mobile node.
Chemoattractant
3 Emitter
3
Chemoattractant
3
Bacteria with transferred
message
Bacteria conjugation
point
2
2
Relay Node
2
1
(a)
1
(b)
1
(c)
Sasitharan Balasubramaniam, Pietro Lio’, Multi-hop Conjugation based Bacteria Nanonetworks,
IEEE Transactions on NanoBioscience, vol. 12, no. 1, March 2013.
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Smart Organ
• Through tissue engineering we
can develop various body parts
•
Tissues -> Organs (skin, bone)
• Using nanomaterial scaffolds,
we can grow cells on the
scaffold into tissue
• Utilizing 3D bioprinting to
develop organs
• Challenge – integration to the
existing system within the body
• Integrate sensors into the tissue
(Smart tissue)
•
www.mhs.manchester.ac.uk
Robert Langer (BBC, October
2013)
www.explainingthefuture.com
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Internet of Things
Environmental
Sensors
BAN
•
Physical Interconnection of devices, objects……integrated with virtual
interconnection of services
•
A large number of these devices are MINITIARIZED devices (sensors,
BAN)!!!
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Internet of NANO Things
Environmental
Sensors
BAN
•
MORE MINITIARIZED -> Interconnection of devices at Nanoscale AND
connection to the wider Internet
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IoNT Architecture
Services Layer
Context
Management layer
nanosensors
nanosensors
on
clothing
s
Sweat
Micro-gateway
Query routing
Phone
surface
sensors
–
nanosensors
nanosensors
Microgateway
Blood
Molecular
nanonetworks
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Pathogens
EM – nano
communicatio
n
Nano-sensors
For
environmental
monitoring
Chemicals
Allergens
IoNT Challenges: Context
Models
Raw
Data
Nano
Sensors
Micro
Sensors
Molecular Communication
Temperature
Pressure
Data
Collection
Services
Application
Services
Micro-
Context
Inference
and
Deduction
Context Model
Contains
Context
Broker
Bio medical
Gene
Ontology
Smart Office
Ontology
Nano
Sensors
Contains
User
Profile
PerformingAt
EM nano
Shopping Env.
Smart Home
Nano-sensor
Bacteria Nanonets
Calcium Signaling
Activity
Context
Processing
BAN2
Accelerometer
MicroContex
t
Contex
t
BAN
Contains
LocatedAT
Location
X-value
Y-value
Z-value
Service
Directory
Medical Condition
Contains
Device
Contains
Nano
Sensors
Bio nano-sensor
Cross domain ontologies
Ontologies and Knowledge base
(a)
Cross domains of heterogeneous knowledge bases
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(b)
Mobile Phone
IoNT Challenges: Service
Models
Application
Services A
MicroContext
ServiceComposition”Molecular Nets”
MicroContext
ServiceComposition”EM Nanonets”
ContextInteraction
Data
Collection
Services A2
ContextInteraction
MicroContext
Data
Collection
Services A1
EM Nanonets
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Molecular
Communications
• Multitude of nanodevices and micro-gateways
• Big data from nanoscale sensors and networks
• New distributed service models (lightweight
services)
Applications (1): Body Area
NanoNetworks (BAN2)
• New healthcare monitoring
approaches
• BAN -> BAN2
• Heterogeneous molecular
communication networks
• Short range (Calcium
signalling)
• Medium range
(Bacteria)
• Long range
(Hormones)
Nucleus
Cell
Message
biomolecule
Long
range
transmis
sion
Nucleus
Enzyme
protocols
Cell
Nucleus
Cell
Microgateway
Nucleus
Cell
Nucleus
Short range
transmissio
n
Synthetic
Nanosensor
Cell
Nucleus
Cell
Baris Atakan, Ozgur B. Akan, Sasitharan Balasubramaniam, Body Area NanoNetworks with Molecular Communications in
Nanomedicine, IEEE Communications Magazine, January 2012.
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Applications (2): Smart Cities
Smart Agriculture
• Contamination control
• Urban agriculture
(hydroponics)
Smart Transport
• Pollution control
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Smart Water
• Contamination control
• Infrastructure
monitoring (smart
pipes)
Smart Energy
• Monitoring of renewable
energy infrastructure
( graphene-based solar
panels)
• Monitoring of biofuel
production
EU FET Project Plan (1)
• Coordinated Support Action (FET OPEN2 - September 2014) Planned
submission September 2014 (7 partners including TSSG - WIT, Ireland
(coordinator); Koc, Turkey, TUT (Finland)........
• FET Open (FET OPEN1 - September 2014): Internet of Bacteria Things
• Collaborator: Prof. Ozgur B. Akan, Koc University
• Partners: University of Helsinki (Finland), Tampere University of
Technology (Finland), Koc University (Turkey), University of
Cambridge (UK), Tyndall Institute (Ireland)
• Objective: To realize a simple bacteria nanonetwork that interfaces
to the Internet (software services)
•
•
Bridge ICT to Molecular Biology World. Linking communication of
behaviour of bacteria to the software services in Telecommunications.
Bacteria communication will be conducted through wet lab experiments
(Univ. of Helsinki).
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EU FET Project Plan (2)
Services
Services
Services
Bacteria
Microgateway
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Conclusion
• Basics of Nanotechnology
• Examples of Nanomachines
• Nano Communication
•
•
Electro-magnetic Nano Communications
Molecular Communications
• Internet of Nano Things
•
•
Body Area Nanonetworks
Smart Cities Applications
• Plans for Horizon2020
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