Nanoscale Communication with Brownian Motion

In this paper, the problem of communicating using chemical messages propagating using Brownian motion, rather than electromagnetic messages propagating as waves in free space or along a wire, is considered. This problem is motivated by nanotechnological and biotechnological applications, where the energy cost of electromagnetic communication might be prohibitive. Models are given for communication using particles that propagate with Brownian motion, and achievable capacity results are given. Under conservative assumptions, it is shown that rates exceeding one bit per particle are achievable.

[1]  R. Johnstone,et al.  Cooperation in the dark: signalling and collective action in quorum-sensing bacteria , 2001, Proceedings of the Royal Society of London. Series B: Biological Sciences.

[2]  Rajesh Sundaresan,et al.  Capacity of queues via point-process channels , 2006, IEEE Transactions on Information Theory.

[3]  Sergio Verdú,et al.  Bits through queues , 1994, Proceedings of 1994 IEEE International Symposium on Information Theory.

[4]  Ron Weiss,et al.  Engineered Communications for Microbial Robotics , 2000, DNA Computing.

[5]  Ioannis Karatzas,et al.  Brownian Motion and Stochastic Calculus , 1987 .

[6]  Ron Weiss,et al.  Genetic circuit building blocks for cellular computation, communications, and signal processing , 2003, Natural Computing.

[7]  Leslie G. Valiant,et al.  The Complexity of Computing the Permanent , 1979, Theor. Comput. Sci..