Reading Articles with Our Noses: A Bio-Inspired Solution for Synthetic Molecular Communications

分子通信是以分子为信息载体的通信工程中的一种新范式。MC系统有望实现新的革命性应用，如医药领域的智能药物输送和工业环境中的石油管道或化学反应监测。尽管最近在这个新兴领域取得了进展，但色散MC信道造成的干扰仍然是设计可靠和高数据速率MC系统的主要挑战。幸运的是，大自然已经为这一挑战开发了一种进化的解决方案，并被例如哺乳动物的嗅觉系统所应用。基本思想是使用1)大量不同类型的信号分子，使得相同类型的分子不经常使用，以及2)具有少量受体类型的简单接收器架构，其能够识别多种同时释放的分子类型。例如，人类只需在鼻子内表面使用几百种类型的受体，就能区分数千种化学物质。我们将这些系统称为大量分子类型(SRLM)系统的少量受体。在这个项目中，我们建议使用SRLM概念作为设计合成MC系统的基础，以促进有效的干扰抑制和高数据速率。这是世界上第一个研究在合成MC中使用生物启发的SRLM系统的项目。具体而言，本课题包括相应的通信理论信道建模、发射机和接收机的设计，以及SRLM系统的系统性能分析和仿真。与最先进的解决方案相比，拟议的受生物启发的SRLM系统预计将更可靠，并实现更高的数据速率，因此将进一步推动合成MC这一新兴领域的发展。

Molecular communication (MC) is a new paradigm in communication engineering where molecules are employed as information carriers. MC systems are expected to enable new revolutionary applications such as smart drug delivery in medicine and monitoring of oil pipelines or chemical reactors in industrial settings. Despite the recent advancements in this emerging field, the interference caused by the dispersive MC channel still remains a major challenge for the design of reliable and high data-rate MC systems. Fortunately, nature has developed an evolutionary solution to this challenge which is applied by e.g. mammalian olfactory systems. The basic idea is to employ 1) a large number of different types of signaling molecules such that the same type of molecule is not frequently used and 2) a simple receiver architecture with a small number of receptor types that is able to recognize multiple simultaneously released molecule types. For example, humans are able to discriminate many thousands of chemicals by using only a few hundred types of receptors on their inner nose surface. We refer to these systems as Small number of Receptors for a Large number of Molecule types (SRLM) systems. In this project, we propose to use the SRLM concept as the basis for the design of synthetic MC systems to facilitate efficient interference mitigation and high data rates. This is the first project worldwide that investigates the use of bio-inspired SRLM systems for synthetic MCs. In particular, this project comprises the corresponding communication theoretical channel modeling, transmitter and receiver design, and system performance analysis and simulation of SRLM systems. The proposed bio-inspired SRLM systems are expected to be more reliable and to achieve higher data rates compared to state-of-the-art solutions and hence will further advance the emerging field of synthetic MCs.