Using Dimensional Analysis to Assess Scalability and Accuracy in Molecular Communication

TL;DR

This paper employs dimensional analysis to evaluate the scalability and accuracy of a molecular communication system utilizing enzymes to reduce interference, providing insights into when concentration assumptions hold and how environmental parameters affect system performance.

Contribution

It introduces a dimensional analysis framework to assess the scalability and accuracy of enzyme-assisted molecular communication systems, extending understanding of parameter impacts.

Findings

Lower bound on molecule count can be arbitrarily scaled

Accuracy of concentration assumptions depends on environmental parameters

Generalized how parameters influence lower bound accuracy

Abstract

In this paper, we apply dimensional analysis to study a diffusive molecular communication system that uses diffusing enzymes in the propagation environment to mitigate intersymbol interference. The enzymes bind to information molecules and then degrade them so that they cannot interfere with the detection of future transmissions at the receiver. We determine when it is accurate to assume that the concentration of information molecules throughout the receiver is constant and equal to that expected at the center of the receiver. We show that a lower bound on the expected number of molecules observed at the receiver can be arbitrarily scaled over the environmental parameters, and generalize how the accuracy of the lower bound is qualitatively impacted by those parameters.