Browse Theses

Developing systems composed of nanomachines requires communication mechanisms for nanomachines to coordinate with other nanomachines. Nanomachines are artificial or biological molecules that perform simple computing, sensing, or actuation. Biological systems often use molecular communication to communicate among nanomachines: a nanomachine(s) sends (sender) molecules to encode information, the information molecules propagate through the environment, and another nanomachine(s) receives (receiver) the molecules as decoded information. A system of nanomachines may require a variety of communication functionality such as uni-cast to a single receiver or broadcast to many receivers.

All communication processes (encoding, sending, propagating, receiving, decoding) impact the design of a communication system. In this project, we focus on single-hop communication (no resending of a signal) from a single sender without any feedback mechanisms (no communication from receiver to sender). We improve the design of a molecular communication system by characterizing several techniques for sending, propagating, and receiving information molecules. First we conduct biology experiments necessary to characterize the components for propagation of molecular communication. Next, we model the components and perform simulations to measure the delay and success rate of receiving information molecules for three propagation techniques (diffusion-only, directional molecular motors, and a hybrid using both diffusion and motors). Then, we model and mathematically measure signal, noise and information rate for multiple bit communication. Finally, we model techniques to modify signal and noise such as noise dissipation, sending multiple information molecules, and receiving multiple information molecules. We compare the information rates of the various techniques to identify promising approaches for uni-cast and broadcast communication.

Index Terms . Molecular communication, information rate, noise, kinesin molecular motor, microtubule, simulation.