With current research focus to interconnect the molecular communication environment with external environment, it is imperative to design external devices working on molecular communication schemes to be interfaced with in-vivo molecular network. Recently, efforts have been made to integrate molecular communication with Lab-on-chip (LOC); one of the techniques used in LOC for manipulation and transportation of molecules is Dielctrophoresis (DEP). We propose the use of DEP in molecular communication to maintain in-sequence delivery of molecules. DEP planar electrodes are modeled as relays used in telecommunications. We describe the theoretical system model and analyze the effect of introducing DEP relays in diffusive channel in terms of probability of in-sequence delivery of molecules. Information rate of DEP-based channel is analytically obtained for in-sequence delivery. The numerical results obtained show that the information rate for in-sequence delivery of molecules through diffusive channel increases by 26% if DEP relays are used in the channel. Though the system is sensitive to noise variance, incorporation of DEP relay results in a substantial improvement in the capacity of the channel.
Increase in research focus on developing lab-on-chip based devices like Body-on-chip and Organ-on-chip, have led to a higher number of functional entities in lab-on-chip. This, in turn, has led to increasingly complex microfluidic channel networks. Thus, there arises a need to characterize the microfluidic networks and establish communication among various entities of lab-on-chip. Electric circuit analogy is one of the options for the characterization of such a microfluidic network. Further, the dielectrophoresis relay-assisted molecular communication system can help in establishing interconnection among various entities using molecular communication. We propose to use an electrical transmission line technique to model and characterize the dielectrophoresis relay-assisted molecular communication system. We use transmission line parameters-resistance, inductance, and capacitance for characterizing the said molecular communication system. The numerical results obtained show that the peak concentration reduces as a function of distance, and the attenuation of the transmitted signal decreases with the increase in the number of relays in the system. This implies that the dielectrophoresis relay-assisted molecular communication system can help in transmitting low-frequency concentration signal with low attenuation. The results obtained are consistent with those obtained with already existing techniques. Thus, the transmission line technique can be utilized for characterizing a microfluidic system for molecular communication.
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