title: Molecular communication using Brownian motion with drift.
abstract: Inspired by biological communication systems, molecular communication has been proposed as a viable scheme to communicate between nano-sized devices separated by a very short distance. Here, molecules are released by the transmitter into the medium, which are then sensed by the receiver. This paper develops a preliminary version of such a communication system focusing on the release of either one or two molecules into a fluid medium with drift. We analyze the mutual information between transmitter and the receiver when information is encoded in the time of release of the molecule. Simplifying assumptions are required in order to calculate the mutual information, and theoretical results are provided to show that these calculations are upper bounds on the true mutual information. Furthermore, optimized degree distributions are provided, which suggest transmission strategies for a variety of drift velocities.
authors.affiliation: The Edward S. Rogers Sr. Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Toronto, Toronto. ON M5S 3G4, Canada. kadloor1@uiuc.edu
authors.forename: Sachin
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Kadloor
authors.forename: Raviraj S
authors.initials: RS
authors.lastname: Adve
authors.forename: Andrew W
authors.initials: AW
authors.lastname: Eckford
mesh_terms: D000042:Absorption; D000465:Algorithms; D040761:Biomimetic Materials; D003142:Communication; D003198:Computer Simulation; D008958:Models, Molecular; D008962:Models, Theoretical; D036103:Nanotechnology / Q000379:methods*; D053038:Quorum Sensing; D012815:Signal Processing, Computer-Assisted