Novel Receiver for Superparamagnetic Iron Oxide Nanoparticles in a Molecular Communication Setting

Abstract

Superparamagnetic iron oxide nanoparticles (SPIONs) have recently been introduced as information carriers in a testbed for molecular communication (MC) in duct flow. Here, a new receiver for this testbed is presented, based on the concept of a bridge circuit. The capability for a reliable transmission using the testbed and detection of the proposed receiver was evaluated by sending a text message and a 80 bit random sequence at a bit rate of 1/s, which resulted in a bit error rate of 0 %. Furthermore, the sensitivity of the device was assessed by a dilution series, which gave a limit for the detectability of peaks between 0.1 to 0.5 mg/mL. Compared to the commercial susceptometer that was previously used as receiver, the new detector provides an increased sampling rate of 100 samples/s and flexibility in the dimensions of the propagation channel. Furthermore, it allows to implement both single-ended and differential signaling in SPION-bases MC testbeds.

Experimental System for Molecular Communication in Pipe Flow With Magnetic Nanoparticles

“…A better theoretical understanding will also help guiding the hardware development. This includes the optimization of the receiver device [34], employing different pumps for better control of the injection, changing the injection mechanism, e.g., replacing the Y-connector by a needle, and testing different types of particles. Moreover, the testbed could potentially be expanded by implementing a network of ducts, changing the carrier liquid, employing magnets for particle movement control, and scaling of its size.…”

“…However, an experimental MC system with magnetic nanoparticles as information carriers has only been presented in the conference version of this work [1]. Furthermore, for this testbed, the design and characterization of receiver [34]- [36] and transmitter devices [37], [38] has also been investigated.…”

Amplitude Modulation in a Molecular Communication Testbed with Superparamagnetic Iron Oxide Nanoparticles and a Micropump

“…In [16] a different setup that uses superparamagnetic iron oxide nanoparticles (SPIONs) as information carriers in a fluid transmission channel is presented. [1,2] provide some induction-based receiver concepts for such SPION-based testbeds.…”

“…Investigated data transmission scenarios in [1,2] were confined to binarystate symbol transmissions, encoding a '1' as an injection of SPIONs into the transmission channel and a '0' as no injection. The achievable information rate was restricted due to an increase of inter-symbol interference for reduced symbol intervals.…”

Colour-Specific Microfluidic Droplet Detection for Molecular Communication

“…This approach has been experimentally investigated in previous work on centimeter-and decimeter-scale (e.g. [1,2,7,9,18]). For smaller geometries, it can be implemented in a microfluidic setup.…”