Asymmetrical relaying in molecular communications

Abstract

Molecular communication via diffusion (MCvD) is a novel communication technique that uses the diffusive characteristics of molecules for enabling the communication between nanomachines. Since the molecules propagate following a random motion, MCvD schemes are usually limited to a short communication range. Most of the molecular relaying schemes in the literature consider symmetric setups where transmitters and receivers are placed at the same distance from the relay, which is difficult to provide in practical scenarios and a possible cause of failure. In this study, asymmetric molecular links of a relay system are investigated. In order to achieve a satisfactory overall performance in spite of the asymmetries, two parameter optimization methods are proposed for the uplink of a relaying system, based on emitting different types of molecules with different diffusion coefficient values from the transmitters. Due to the channel symmetry, the solutions presented in this study are expected to hold for the downlink as well. The resulting bit error rate (BER) performances are presented and discussed.