A tunnel-based approach for signal shaping in molecular communication

Communication via diffusion is an effective and energy efficient method for transmitting information in nanonetworks. However, the histogram of the molecules hitting at the receiver has a long tail. The molecules constituting this long tail significantly decrease the data rate since the selection of a high symbol duration becomes mandatory to have acceptable bit error rates. In this paper, a novel signal shaping technique for nanonetworking is proposed. This technique aims to decrease the variance of the hitting times via special so-called “destroyer molecules”. This system is inspired by the neuromuscular junction in biology, in which Acetylcholinesterase molecules are used to clean the channel for further transmissions. We consider a molecular communication channel where a tunnel composed of destroyer molecules exist between the communicating pair. Simulation results show that the inclusion of such destroyer molecules decrease both the mean and the variance of the hitting time distribution, allowing better time-responsiveness and higher data rate for the communication via diffusion system.