Tags:
Current communication systems are based on electromagnetic waves. However, with advancing technology, new scenarios and applications are being introduced and traditional EM based communication is no longer applicable. In this regard a shift of paradigm is required to establish communication in new scenarios such as communication among nano robots.
Any communication system consists of three compartments: a transmitter, channel, and receiver. In this paper we focused on the receiver, and proposed an algorithm that can detect if molecules were released from the transmitter. The difficulty with this problem is the random movement of molecules which result in noisy observation of the receiver, and the memory effect of the channel. Memory effect refers to the delayed arrival of molecules, as some molecules may arrive after the desired time interval and coincide with future messages.
A low computational cost algorithm was proposed for a single input single output molecular communication system with transparent receiver. Diffusion advection and reaction are considered as channel characteristics. The quality of detection algorithm is very close to the best available methods in literature, while the computational complexity is very different.
Nano communication systems are at the early stage of development. In the future, researchers can employ the proposed algorithm for concentration shift keying molecular communication systems, where information is encoded in terms of the release or non-release of a certain number of molecules. The received signal refers to the number of molecules inside the receiver volume and the receiver is expected to decide whether molecules were released in an associated time interval or not. Work on biological communication systems that use transparent receivers, such as cameras, to observe and count the particles in an environment, can use the output of this paper.
The next step will be designing a detection algorithm for molecular communication systems with absorbing receivers. Absorbing receivers trap the messenger molecules, so they cannot freely move around after hitting the receiver’s surface. Additionally, extending the single input single output system to a multiple input and multiple output would bring us another step to closer to real scenarios, as we deal with multiple transmitters and receivers in nano scale. Analysis of multiple absorbing receivers must take into account the interaction among receivers. Designing a detection method with mathematical analysis for other types of modulation is another interesting research direction.
In the future, molecular communication research activities will result in many applications pertinent to the health sector due to biocompatibility and the low energy consumption characteristic of this new paradigm of communication. Cooperation among nano devices developed thanks to the MEMS technology is challenging at the moment, and scientists believe that molecular communication is the solution to establishing the communication network among nano devices.
Publication Title: Low complexity receiver design for time-varying Poisson molecular communication channels with memory
Authors: Fardad Vakilipoor, Francesca Ratti, Hamdan Awan, Maurizio Magarini
Publication Date: 16 Aug 2021
Journal: Digital Signal Processing
Link to publication:
via%3Dihubhttps://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S1051200421002268?via%3Dihub