Molecular communication: Physically realistic models and achievable information rates

Abstract: Molecular communication is a biologically-inspired method of communication with attractive properties for microscale and nanoscale devices. In molecular communication, messages are transmitted by releasing a pattern of molecules at a transmitter, which propagate through a fluid medium towards a receiver. In this paper, molecular communication is formulated as a mathematical communication problem in an information-theoretic context. Physically realistic models are obtained, with sufficient abstraction to allow manipulation by communication and information theorists. Although mutual information in these channels is intractable, we give sequences of upper and lower bounds on the mutual information which trade off complexity and performance, and present results to illustrate the feasibility of these bounds in estimating the true mutual information.