Chemical Reactions-based Detection Mechanism for Molecular Communications

Cao TN, Jamali V, Wicke W, Zlatanov N, Yeoh PL, Evans J, Schober R (2023)

Publication Type: Journal article

Publication year: 2023

Journal

IEEE Transactions on Molecular, Biological and Multi-Scale Communications IEEE

Pages Range: 1-1

DOI: 10.1109/TMBMC.2023.3244649

Abstract

In molecular communications, the direct detection of signaling molecules may be challenging due to a lack of suitable sensors and interference from co-existing substances in the environment. Motivated by research in molecular biology, we investigate an indirect detection mechanism using chemical reactions between the signaling molecules and a molecular probe to produce an easy-to-measure product at the receiver. We consider two implementations of the proposed detection mechanism, i.e., unrestricted probe movement and probes restricted to a volume around the receiver. In general, the resulting reaction-diffusion equations that describe the concentrations of the reactant and product molecules in the system are non-linear and coupled, and cannot be solved in closed form. To evaluate these molecule concentrations, we develop an efficient iterative algorithm by discretizing the time variable and solving for the space variables of the concentration equations in each time step. In the special case when the concentration of the unrestricted probes is high and not significantly changed by the chemical reaction, we obtain insightful closed-form solutions. Our results show that the concentrations of the product molecules and the signalling molecules have a similar characteristic over time, i.e., a single peak and a long tail. We highlight that by carefully choosing the molecular probe and optimizing the decision threshold, the BER can be improved significantly such that a direct detection system is outperformed. Moreover, when the molecular probes are kept in a small volume around the receiver, fewer resources are needed to achieve a lower BER and/or a higher data rate compared to the case of unrestricted molecular probes.

Authors with CRIS profile

Wayan Wicke Lehrstuhl für Digitale Übertragung Robert Schober Lehrstuhl für Digitale Übertragung

Involved external institutions

Monash University AU Australia (AU) Technische Universität Darmstadt DE Germany (DE) The University of Melbourne AU Australia (AU)

How to cite

APA:

Cao, T.N., Jamali, V., Wicke, W., Zlatanov, N., Yeoh, P.L., Evans, J., & Schober, R. (2023). Chemical Reactions-based Detection Mechanism for Molecular Communications. IEEE Transactions on Molecular, Biological and Multi-Scale Communications, 1-1. https://dx.doi.org/10.1109/TMBMC.2023.3244649

MLA:

Cao, Trang Ngoc, et al. "Chemical Reactions-based Detection Mechanism for Molecular Communications." IEEE Transactions on Molecular, Biological and Multi-Scale Communications (2023): 1-1.

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