Abstract
Advances in nanobioscience and nanomaterials have resulted in biological nanomachines,
or bionanomachines, that can perform tasks at the molecular scale and
promise novel applications in the areas of medical, biological and nano science.
A key enabler for these applications is the creation of nanoscale networks or
nanonetworks which will facilitate communication and collaboration between
bionanomachines and communication with external networks. However, the
creation of a biological nanonetwork using conventional electromagnetic communication
technology is constrained by the physical scale, biological compatibility
factors, and the computational limitations of the biological nanomachines.
Inspired by natural biological processes, molecular communication is an
emerging communication paradigm that uses biological molecules to encode and
transmit information. The current research in this domain has concentrated
predominantly on the physical mechanisms and channel models involved in encoding
and transporting molecular encoded information in biological environments.
This thesis extends this work by developing communication protocols for
molecular communication nanonetworks. More speci�cally, this research maps
existing networking concepts such as addressing, routing and message scheduling
to biological processes and shows how these processes can be integrated
with di�erent modes of molecular communication. Components from various
layers of a communication protocol stack are matched to suitable molecular
computing mechanisms. Nucleic acid-based molecular computing solutions are
used to design and simulate protocol components for information encoding and
addressing of biological molecules whereas enzyme-based molecular computing
solutions are utilised for routing and switching protocol functions. The performance
of neuronal nanonetworks is investigated taking into account how neuron
cell characteristics a�ect message delivery. This includes a genetic algorithmbased
transmission scheduling approach to ensure that signals initiated by multiple
devices will successfully reach the receiver with minimum interference. The
reliability and delay characteristics for multi-hop, virus-based nanonetworks is
also investigated and a probability model is developed. This is used to evaluate
di�erent topology designs, taking into account the physiochemical and biological
characteristics of virus particles.
The �nal simulation results and analysis models characterise several approaches
to nanonetworking using di�erent modes of molecular communication
and provides the capability for accurately designing molecular communication
nanoneworks. It is expected that this work will make a signi�cant contribution
to the in-silico design and development of future nanoneworks.
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Original language | English |
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Awarding Institution | |
Supervisors/Advisors |
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Publication status | Submitted - 2013 |
Keywords
- Molecular communication nanonetworks