arXiv subjects

Andrew W. Eckford

Publications and source records attributed to Andrew W. Eckford.

76 records · Page 5Linked to original sources

arXiv2010

Molecular communication in fluid media: The additive inverse Gaussian noise channel

We consider molecular communication, with information conveyed in the time of release of molecules. The main contribution of this paper is the development of a theoretical foundation for such a communication system. Specifically, we develop the additive inverse Gaussian (IG) noise channel model: a channel in which the information is corrupted by noise with an inverse Gaussian distribution. We show that such a channel model is appropriate for molecular communication in fluid media - when propagation between transmitter and receiver is governed by Brownian motion and when there is positive drift from transmitter to receiver. Taking advantage of the available literature on the IG distribution, upper and lower bounds on channel capacity are developed, and a maximum likelihood receiver is derived. Theory and simulation results are presented which show that such a channel does not have a single quality measure analogous to signal-to-noise ratio in the AWGN channel. It is also shown that the use of multiple molecules leads to reduced error rate in a manner akin to diversity order in wireless communications. Finally, we discuss some open problems in molecular communications that arise from the IG system model.

cs.IT↗

arXiv2008

Molecular communication: Physically realistic models and achievable information rates

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.

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arXiv2007

Ordering Finite-State Markov Channels by Mutual Information

In previous work, an ordering result was given for the symbolwise probability of error using general Markov channels, under iterative decoding of LDPC codes. In this paper, the ordering result is extended to mutual information, under the assumption of an iid input distribution. For certain channels, in which the capacity-achieving input distribution is iid, this allows ordering of the channels by capacity. The complexity of analyzing general Markov channels is mitigated by this ordering, since it is possible to immediately determine that a wide class of channels, with different numbers of states, has a smaller mutual information than a given channel.

cs.IT↗

arXiv2007

Nanoscale Communication with Brownian Motion

In this paper, the problem of communicating using chemical messages propagating using Brownian motion, rather than electromagnetic messages propagating as waves in free space or along a wire, is considered. This problem is motivated by nanotechnological and biotechnological applications, where the energy cost of electromagnetic communication might be prohibitive. Models are given for communication using particles that propagate with Brownian motion, and achievable capacity results are given. Under conservative assumptions, it is shown that rates exceeding one bit per particle are achievable.

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