Learning From Nature: Energy Harvesting and Intersymbol Interference Mitigation via Reuptake of Information Molecules in Diffusive Molecular Communication Systems
Final Report Abstract
n this project, SMC was studied with the goal to better understand its fundamental operating principles in communication theoretic terms and learn for the design of synthetic MC systems. To this end, an analytical channel model for SMC has been developed in work package 1 to identify the fundamental limits for synaptic signal transmission in the tripartite synapse in the presence of presynaptic and glial cell NT uptake. The impact of the competition of NTs for postsynaptic receptors (and vice versa) on the statistics of the received signal in SMC was studied in work package 2. It was shown that considering the competition between NTs and receptors, respectively, is important for understanding the synaptic signal transmission. In work package 3, a generic model for postsynaptic receptors encompassing a wide range of natural postsynaptic receptor types was studied and the impact of the different receptor kinetics on the received signal was explored. A generic model for the impact of the biophysical parameters of the synapse on the statistics of the electrochemical downstream signal in SMC was proposed in work package 4 and it was revealed that the autocovariance of the postsynaptic receptor activation plays an important role in SMC. The concept of molecule harvesting as it is observed in SMC was analyzed in a generic synthetic MC context in work package 5 and fundamental trade-offs between the harvesting of signaling molecules and the expected received signal were identified. Finally, in work package 6, the potential of NTs as signaling molecules for synthetic MC in comparison with other potential signaling molecules was studied along with possible transmitter and receiver architectures. In summary, the project outcomes contribute to the understanding of the fundamental constraints and trade-offs in natural SMC systems imposed by the constitutive biophysical processes. At the same time, the potential of SMC as a blueprint for synthetic MC systems was explored in the course of the project and the obtained results are expected to enable novel directions in the open quest for synthetic MC system design.
Publications
- “A Survey of Biological Building Blocks for Synthetic Molecular Communication Systems,” in IEEE Communications Surveys & Tutorials, vol. 22, no. 4, Jul. 2020
C. A. Söldner, E. Socher, V. Jamali, W. Wicke, A. Ahmadzadeh, H. Breitinger, A. Burkovski, K. Castiglione, R. Schober, and H. Sticht
(See online at https://doi.org/10.1109/COMST.2020.3008819) - “Channel modeling for synaptic molecular communication with re-uptake and reversible receptor binding,” in Proc. IEEE International Conference on Communications (ICC), pp. 1-7, Jun. 2020
S. Lotter, A. Ahmadzadeh, and R. Schober
(See online at https://doi.org/10.1109/ICC40277.2020.9149090) - “Receptor Saturation Modeling for Synaptic DMC,” in Proc. IEEE International Conference on Communications (ICC), pp. 1-6, Jun. 2021
S. Lotter, M. Schäfer, J. Zeitler, and R. Schober
(See online at https://doi.org/10.1109/ICC42927.2021.9500809) - “Saturating Receiver and Receptor Competition in Synaptic DMC: Deterministic and Statistical Signal Models,” in IEEE Transactions on NanoBioscience, vol. 20, no. 4, pp. 464-479, Oct. 2021
S. Lotter, M. Schäfer, J. Zeitler, and R. Schober
(See online at https://doi.org/10.1109/TNB.2021.3092279) - “Synaptic Channel Modeling for DMC: Neurotransmitter Uptake and Spillover in the Tripartite Synapse,” in IEEE Transactions on Communications, vol. 69, no. 3, pp. 1462-1479, Mar. 2021
S. Lotter, A. Ahmadzadeh, and R. Schober
(See online at https://doi.org/10.1109/TCOMM.2020.3040318) - “A Chemical Master Equation Model for Synaptic Molecular Communication,” in Proc. IEEE Wireless Communications and Networking Conference (WCNC), Apr. 2022
S. Lotter, M. Schäfer, and R. Schober
(See online at https://doi.org/10.1109/WCNC51071.2022.9771866) - “Molecule Harvesting Transmitter Model for Molecular Communication Systems,” in IEEE Open Journal of the Communications Society, vol. 3, pp. 391–410, Mar. 2022
A. Ahmadzadeh, V. Jamali, and R. Schober
(See online at https://doi.org/10.1109/OJCOMS.2022.3155648)
