From Nano-Communications to Body Area Networks: A Perspective on Truly Personal Communications

Abstract

This paper presents an overview of future truly personal communications, ranging from networking inside the human body to the exchange of data with external wireless devices in the surrounding environment. At the nano-and micro-scales, communications can be realized with the aid of molecular mechanisms, Förster resonance energy transfer phenomenon, electromagnetic or ultrasound waves. At a larger scale, in the domain of Body Area Networks, a wide range of communication mechanisms is available, including smart-textiles, inductive-and body-couplings, ultrasounds, optical and wireless radio transmissions, a number of mature technologies existing already. The main goal of this paper is to identify the potential mechanisms that can be exploited to provide interfaces in between nano-and micro-scale systems and Body Area Networks. These interfaces have to bridge the existing gap between the two worlds, in order to allow for truly personal communication systems to become a reality. The extraordinary applications of such systems are also discussed, as they are strong drivers of the research in this area. INDEX TERMS Body Area Networks, Communication Interfaces, Nano-Networks, Molecular Communications, Personal Communications. I. INTRODUCTION The several successive generations of mobile cellular and wireless communications have been aiming at a single goal: to provide connectivity to people at their own pleasure. It started with the famous "anytime, anywhere" motto in the 1 st Generation of voice-only mobile cellular communications, and since then it has evolved to the provision of data and multimedia everywhere and with a decreasing delay. In addition to satisfying the anticipated data rate requirements, the incoming 5 th Generation aims at two other key goals: to reduce transmission latency and to substantially increase network capacity. These two goals are not improving the direct user's experience, but rather enabling machine-based applications and services. So, somehow, the further evolution of mobile and wireless communications has to eventually address the truly personal dimension of communications, i.e., the exchange of information within, around, and outside the body. Body area networks (BANs), accommodating such communication scenarios, have been gaining considerable attention recently. However, for truly personal communication systems, one needs to encompass nanonetworks [1], to allow for the exchange of information among devices inside the human body, by exploiting mechanisms at the cellular and molecular levels. At the nanoscale, communications are performed by using molecules or molecular structures with specific properties, such as photoactive fluorophores or channelrhodopsins, antibodies (proteins), moving bacteria or waves of ions at different scales, as shown in Fig. 1. Of course, this ultrawide range of communication mechanisms introduces a number of challenges, including those related to power supply, propagation delay, and throughput, among many others. These challenges need to be addressed from the te...

A Systematic Review of Bio-Cyber Interface Technologies and Security Issues for Internet of Bio-Nano Things

“…Another article [27] overviews Nano communications, BAN (Body Area Network) communications, and the potential mechanisms that can be used for the interfacing between nano-micro-macro communications. Basically, this survey article identifies specific materials and molecules such as Light stimulated channelrhodopsins, BRET(Bioluminescence Resonance Energy Transfer), ATP(Adenosine Triphosphate), Photodetectors, and SPR (Surface Plasmon Resonance), which can be used as part of bio cyber interface to achieve the overall interfacing between nano and micro networking domains.…”

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Light Energy Driven Nanocommunications With FRET in Photosynthetic Systems

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“…is makes it possible for communications to be conducted at a nano-micro scale. Due to this, MC technology can achieve communications in some special scenarios that traditional communication technology cannot work well, such as pipeline [2], human body [3], and saltwater environment [4,5]. With the characteristics of high efficiency and low energy consumption, MC has attracted extensive attention in many fields such as e-health [6], bioengineering [7], and environmental science [8].…”