Macroscopic Diffusion-Based Molecular Communication by Use of a Suspension of Relays

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The aim of the proposed project is to develop and analyse a novel model for macroscopic diffusion-based molecular communication based on a suspension of relays, i.e, a large number of relays in a medium, particularly a fluid. This concept shall for the first time enable molecular communication on a centimetre and metre scale without active material transport. By waiving active transport, distortions of the signal and hence intersymbol interference, as observed for example in laminar flow, shall be avoided. Nerve cells, with the triggering of an action potential and a subsequent refractory period and with the development of an excitation wave through the tissue, serve as a biological model for the relay cells. For an abstract model of this behaviour, suitable ranges and optimal values of the cell parameters with respect to data transmission shall be determined. An exact reproduction of the biological processes, in contrast, is not intended. The setup will be described as a stochastic model, where the stochasticity, in contrast to other approaches for diffusion in literature, lies in the randomly distributed positions of the relay cells, i.e., the sources of the overlapping diffusion processes. Furthermore, the influence of a fluctuation of the molecule concentration and a stochastic variation of the parameters of the relay cell shall be investigated. In contrast to previous approaches, a large number of relay cells shall be considered, which is necessary to use diffusion over macroscopic distances, and shall enable the transition from a model with discrete relays to a continuum model. In this way, the transmission of a symbol ’1’ is represented by an excitation wave in the medium. Thus, in addition to active transport and a pure diffusion, a third form of molecular data transmission shall be introduced. In addition to the analysis of the data transmission performance in relationship to the system parameters, options for an implementation of the model in a testbed shall be discussed.