Abstract-Nanotechnologies promise new solutions for several applications in the biomedical, industrial and military fields. At the nanoscale, a nanomachine is considered as the most basic functional unit which is able to perform very simple tasks. Communication among nanomachines will allow them to accomplish more complex functions in a distributed manner. In this paper, the state of the art in molecular electronics is reviewed to motivate the study of the Terahertz Band (0.1-10.0 THz) for electromagnetic (EM) communication among nanodevices. A new propagation model for EM communications in the Terahertz Band is developed based on radiative transfer theory and in light of molecular absorption. This model accounts for the total path loss and the molecular absorption noise that a wave in the Terahertz Band suffers when propagating over very short distances. Finally, the channel capacity of the Terahertz Band is investigated by using this model for different power allocation schemes, including a scheme based on the transmission of femtosecond-long pulses. The results show that for very short transmission distances, in the order of several tens of millimeters, the Terahertz channel supports very large bit-rates, up to few terabits per second, which enables a radically different communication paradigm for nanonetworks.

No abstract

No abstract

No abstract

The scattering of terahertz radiation on a graphene-based nano-patch antenna is numerically analyzed. The extinction cross section of the nano-antenna supported by silicon and silicon dioxide substrates of dierent thickness are calculated. Scattering resonances in the terahertz band are identied as Fabry-Perot resonances of surface plasmon polaritons supported by the graphene lm. A strong tunability of the antenna resonances via electrostatic bias is numerically demonstrated, opening perspectives to design tunable graphene-based nano-antennas. These antennas are envisaged to enable wireless communications at the nanoscale.

No abstract

Multi-hop transmission is considered for large coverage areas in bandwidth-limited underwater acoustic networks. In this paper, we present a scalable routing technique based on location information, and optimized for minimum energy per bit consumption. The proposed Focused Beam Routing (FBR) protocol is suitable for networks containing both static and mobile nodes, which are not necessarily synchronized to a global clock. A source node must be aware of its own location and the location of its final destination, but not those of other nodes.The FBR protocol can be defined as a cross-layer approach, in which the routing protocol, the medium access control and the physical layer functionalities are tightly coupled by power control. It can be described as a distributed algorithm, in which a route is dynamically established as the data packet traverses the network towards its final destination. The selection of the next relay is made at each step of the path after suitable candidates have proposed themselves.The system performance is measured in terms of energy per bit consumption and average packet end-to-end delay. The results are compared to those obtained using pre-established routes, defined via Dijkstra's algorithm for minimal power consumption. It is shown that the protocol's performance is close to the ideal case, as the additional burden of dynamic route discovery is minimal.

No abstract