Impulse Response of the Channel with a Spherical Absorbing Receiver and a Spherical Reflecting Boundary

TL;DR

This paper derives the impulse response of a molecular communication channel with a spherical absorbing receiver and reflecting boundary, highlighting how boundaries affect channel characteristics and error rates.

Contribution

It provides a novel analytical derivation of the impulse response considering boundary effects, improving understanding of realistic molecular communication channels.

Findings

Boundaries influence peak time and amplitude of the impulse response.

The total fraction of molecules hitting the receiver is affected by the boundary.

Including boundaries alters the bit error rate compared to unbounded channels.

Abstract

In this letter, we derive the impulse response of the channel with a spherical absorbing receiver, a spherical reflecting boundary, and a point transmitter in molecular communication domain. By exploring the channel characteristics and drawing comparisons with the unbounded case, we show the consequences of having the boundary on channel properties such as peak time, peak amplitude, and total fraction of molecules to hit the receiver. Finally, we calculate the bit error rate for both bounded and unbounded channels and emphasize the significance of incorporating the boundary on understanding the realistic behavior of a channel.