Modeling a Composite Molecular Communication Channel

This paper deals with development of diffusive propagation model for molecular communication in composite biological microenvironments with multiple regions (or layers) each with distinct diffusion properties to understand the transport of information molecules. We propose generalized analytical and simulation approaches for modeling a composite, diffusive, and molecular communication channel for arbitrary placement of the transmitting and receiving nano-machines. We derive a generalized closed-form expression for the channel impulse response of a three dimensionally (3-D) diffusive medium that has “N” regions. The results from the proposed particle-based simulator are validated with the exact analytical solution. The pulse peak amplitude, pulse peak time, and pulse width are derived to evaluate the system performance using both analytical and simulation approaches. It is shown that the channel impulse response and other communication metrics are significantly affected by the diffusion coefficients, region thickness, interface properties, and the positions of transmitter and receiver nano-machines with respect to the interfaces.