Comparison of reception mechanisms for molecular communication via diffusion

Abstract

© 2018 IEEE. Molecular communication paradigm enables nanomachines or biological cells at nano/micro scales to communicate using chemical molecules. In this paper, we study different reception mechanisms in an unbounded 3-D biological medium for diffusion-based molecular communication system and compare their performances. The number of received molecules (i.e., number of activated receptors) is first analytically evaluated and then validated using a particle-based simulator developed by us. We address various receiver models, viz., passive, irreversible partially or fully absorptive, and a more general reversible receivers. The peak amplitude and peak time for passive and fully absorptive receivers are evaluated. The impact of various parameters, e.g., diffusion coefficient, separation distance, forward/backward reaction rates, on the received signal are examined.