Simulating molecular motor uni-cast information rate for molecular communication

For Workshop on Biological and Bio-Inspired Information Theory. Future applications may require communication mechanisms for nanomachines to coordinate with other nano-machines. Nanomachines are artificial or biological macromolecules that perform simple computing, sensing, or actuation. A molecular communication system is one method for communication among nanomachines: a nanomachine(s) releases molecules to represent information (sending), the information molecules propagate through the environment, and another nanomachine(s) reacts to the molecules as information (receiving). Developing advanced molecular communication systems may be simpler with generic uni-cast and broadcast mechanisms for transmission from one nanomachine to one or more nanomachines(s). All communication processes (encoding, sending, propagating, receiving, decoding) impact the design of a communication system. In this paper, we improve the design of a molecular communication system by characterizing several techniques for sending, propagating, and receiving information molecules. First, we measure the probability of receiving information molecules for three propagation techniques (diffusion-only, directional molecular motors, and a hybrid using both diffusion and motors). Next, we model bit transmission to measure signal, noise and information rate. Finally, we model techniques to modify signal and noise such as noise dissipation, sending multiple information molecules, and receiving multiple information molecules. We compare the information rates of the various techniques to identify promising approaches for uni-cast and broadcast transmission.