Parameter Analysis in Macro-Scale Molecular Communications Using Advection-Diffusion

Molecular communication (MC) is a method where the transmission of information involves the use of chemicals or molecules instead of electromagnetic waves. The study of MC to date has mostly focused on the nano (nm) to micro (μm) scale and there have been only a few experimental studies on the subject of macro-scale. In this paper properties of macro-scale MC are experimented and studied. These are signal flow (
q
), carrier flow (
Q
), and bit duration (
T
). A mass spectrometer with a quadrupole mass analyzer is used as the detector and an in-house-built odor generator is used as the chemical pulse generator. This paper has shown that the signal energy has a quadratic relation to signal flow whereas the carrier flow has a non-linear relation to both the signal amplitude and the signal energy. The bit duration has shown that the system reaches a saturation point as the bit duration is increased and this effect also occurs in the leftover chemical signal after bit transmission. Finally, a mathematical model is developed for the first time to explain the molecular transmission on the macro-scale using advection-diffusion equation.