Dielectrophoretic Relay Assisted Molecular Communication for In-Sequence Molecule Delivery

Abstract

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.

Characterization of Dielectrophoresis Based Relay-Assisted Molecular Communication Using Analogue Transmission Line

“…However, in the DEP relay-assisted MC system, the distance between T l and R l is divided amongst electrode, and each electrode acts as a buffer and a relay. Therefore, the molecules are collected and buffered by electrode during t on time, and are diffused towards next electrode in t off time [11]. As discussed in the previous section, the DEP relay-assisted MC system helps in maintaining the Gaussian waveform, which in turn helps in maintaining received signal strength at the R l .…”

“…DEP is a phenomenon in which neutral molecules move under the influence of a nonhomogeneous electric field [10]. DEP relay-assisted MC systems can help to overcome several limitations of MC, such as low bandwidth, range of communication, and synchronization between T l and R l [11].…”

“…A solution to the problem of attenuation and temporal spreading of a signal is necessary for establishing a reliable molecular communication in the diffusive channel, and this can be mitigated using the DEP relay-assisted MC system. DEP assisted transport process relies on applying and switching ON and OFF of asymmetric electric field between electrodes [11]. In this work, authors gather control over random diffusion of molecules by applying an asymmetric potential to periodically placed electrodes in the diffusive medium and thus exploit the DEP phenomenon of creating a rectified drift.…”

“…In [11], the probability of information rate is governed by design parameters such as total time t c = (t on + t off ) and the number of relays placed between T l and R l (which in turn, decides the maximum repeater-less distance of a molecule).…”

Molecular Communication in Fractional Diffusive Channel

“…The water diffusion in brain tissue as measured by MRI can be analyticaly modeled using the SBM model[13] 2. The MolCom channel can be approximated as a 1-D channel when the length of channel is much greater than its height, such that the molecules diffuse more along x-axis than y-axis[16]. Such approximations are valid in several MolCom applications such as lab-on-chip[17] and nanoporous flow systems[18].…”