1. Molecular Communications
Roumit Basera
CS 555
04/14/16

2. 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

3. Biological Community
Blood Cells
Community of Bacteria
The cellular structures of organisms use communication networks
Molecules are used to communicate
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4. 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

5. 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.
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6. 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
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7. 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)
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8. Nano-machine Communication
Traditional communication methods are not feasible, such as the use of electromagnetic waves
Information is encoded to and decoded from molecules

9. How Molecular Communication Works
Molecules are transmitted between sender and receiver nano-machines, similar to TCP connections
Eventually the receiver sends a molecule signal to notify the sender to stop transmitting
A suitable transmission rate is found during the process between the sender and receiver to avoid congestion just as in TCP congestion control
Explicit acknowledgements are not used (to avoid worsening communication throughput)
Instead, feedback signal molecules are sent by the receiver to throttle the transmission rate at the sender nano-machine
The receiver sends a molecule as a connection setup signal to the sender so that the sender begins transmitting molecules
Sender transmits molecules
Molecules propagate through diffusion
Over time, the receiver absorbs a certain number of molecules through its receptors

10. 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

11. Molecular Communication Applications

12. Future Goals Health Industry Environment Military Nanomedicine
Tissue Engineering
Environment
Monitoring and quality control
Military
Biochemical sensing

13. References
Nakano, T. (2015). A network architecture and protocols for molecular communication – a biologically inspired nanoscale networking paradigm. Retrieved from 3c8f609c6b80/core-project6-web-nakano.pdf
Felicetti, L., Femminella, M., Reali, G., Nakano, T., & Vasilakos, A. V. (2014, June 17). TCP-like molecular communications. Retrieved from
(2013, December 18). Text message using vodka: molecular communication can aid communication underground, underwater or inside the body. Phys.org. Retrieved from