Asymmetrical inter-symbol interference in macro-scale molecular communications

Molecular communication (MC) is new method of information transmission whereby information is carried by chemical signals instead of electromagnetic (EM) waves. This shift to a new type of information carrier makes MC a viable option in circumstances where EM communication might prove inefficient, e.g., in underwater and underground communications or for in-body and biological applications. To date, almost all MC systems that have been proposed have focused on nano- and micro-scale communications, however recent research has sought to implement MC at macro-scales. A major problem of MC is the inter-symbol interference (ISI) caused by residual chemicals leftover from a previous transmission which can cause incorrect decoding of the signal. This paper reports an experimental study conducted on transmitting MC at the macro-scale. A mass spectrometer (MS) was used as the detector and an algorithm was designed to help mitigate the memory effect of the channel. It is shown that by using the algorithm, communication in the macro-scale is made more practical and feasible.