Energy Efficient Transmitter Creation by Consuming Free Energy in Molecular Communication
Information molecules play a crucial role in molecular communication (MC), acting as carriers for information transfer. A common approach to get information molecules in MC involves harvesting them from the environment; however, the harvested molecules are often a mixture of various environmental molecules, and the initial concentration ratios in the reservoirs are identical, which hampers high-fidelity transmission techniques such as molecular shift keying (MoSK). This paper presents a transmitter design that harvests molecules from the surrounding environment and stores them in two reservoirs. To separate the mixed molecules, energy is consumed to transfer them between reservoirs. Given limited energy resources, this work explores energy-efficient strategies to optimize transmitter performance. Through theoretical analysis and simulations, we investigate different methods for moving molecules between reservoirs. The results demonstrate that transferring higher initial concentration molecules enhances transmitter performance, while using fewer molecules per transfer further improves efficiency. These findings provide valuable insights for optimizing MC systems through energy-efficient molecule transfer techniques.
Authors
- Dongliang Jing (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1519-8307)
- Lin Lin (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9602-8977)
- Zhen Cheng (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9207-7755)
- Andrew W. Eckford (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9808-1229)
- Linjuan Li (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9517-8762)
Institutions
- Tongji University (CN)
- York University (CA)
- Ministry of Agriculture (EE)
- Ministry of Agriculture (TN)
- Zhejiang University of Technology (CN)
- Northwest A&F University (CN)
Publication Details
- Journal
- IEEE Transactions on Molecular Biological and Multi-Scale Communications
- Published
- 2025-02-20
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1109/tmbmc.2025.3544111
- Primary Topic
- Molecular Communication and Nanonetworks
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 0.00
Funders
- National Natural Science Foundation of China
- China Postdoctoral Science Foundation
- Natural Science Basic Research Program of Shaanxi Province