System Modeling of Microfluidic Molecular Communication: A Markov Approach

TL;DR

This paper introduces a Markov-based system model for microfluidic molecular communication channels, enabling accurate analysis of their transient and equilibrium behaviors under various flow conditions.

Contribution

It proposes a novel discretized Markov model that captures key physical processes in microfluidic MC channels, providing a new analytical tool for system design.

Findings

Model accurately reproduces channel behavior across flow conditions

Explicit transition matrix captures diffusion, flow, and binding effects

Enables analytical characterization of transient and steady states

Abstract

This paper presents a Markov-based system model for microfluidic molecular communication (MC) channels. By discretizing the advection-diffusion dynamics, the proposed model establishes a physically consistent state-space formulation. The transition matrix explicitly captures diffusion, advective flow, reversible binding, and flow-out effects. The resulting discrete-time formulation enables analytical characterization of both transient and equilibrium responses through a linear system representation. Numerical results verify that the proposed framework accurately reproduces channel behaviors across a wide range of flow conditions, providing a tractable basis for the design and analysis of MC systems in microfluidic environments.