Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, York University, Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
School of Engineering, University of Warwick, Coventry, United Kingdom.
PLoS One. 2013 Dec 18;8(12):e82935. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0082935. eCollection 2013.
In this work, we describe the first modular, and programmable platform capable of transmitting a text message using chemical signalling - a method also known as molecular communication. This form of communication is attractive for applications where conventional wireless systems perform poorly, from nanotechnology to urban health monitoring. Using examples, we demonstrate the use of our platform as a testbed for molecular communication, and illustrate the features of these communication systems using experiments. By providing a simple and inexpensive means of performing experiments, our system fills an important gap in the molecular communication literature, where much current work is done in simulation with simplified system models. A key finding in this paper is that these systems are often nonlinear in practice, whereas current simulations and analysis often assume that the system is linear. However, as we show in this work, despite the nonlinearity, reliable communication is still possible. Furthermore, this work motivates future studies on more realistic modelling, analysis, and design of theoretical models and algorithms for these systems.
在这项工作中，我们描述了第一个模块化和可编程的平台，该平台能够使用化学信号传输文本消息 - 这种方法也称为分子通信。这种通信形式对于传统无线系统表现不佳的应用很有吸引力，从纳米技术到城市健康监测。通过示例，我们展示了我们的平台作为分子通信测试平台的用途，并通过实验说明了这些通信系统的特点。通过提供一种简单且廉价的实验方法，我们的系统填补了分子通信文献中的一个重要空白，其中许多当前的工作都是在简化系统模型的模拟中完成的。本文的一个重要发现是，这些系统在实践中通常是非线性的，而当前的模拟和分析通常假设系统是线性的。然而，正如我们在这项工作中所展示的，尽管存在非线性，可靠的通信仍然是可能的。此外，这项工作还激发了对这些系统的更现实建模、分析和理论模型与算法设计的未来研究。
