Packet Fragmentation and Reassembly in Molecular Communication

IEEE Trans Nanobioscience. 2016 Apr;15(3):284-8. doi: 10.1109/TNB.2016.2526051. Epub 2016 Feb 12.

Abstract

This paper describes packet fragmentation and reassembly to achieve reliable molecular communication among bionanomachines. In the molecular communication described in this paper, a sender bionanomachine performs packet fragmentation, dividing a large molecular message into smaller pieces and embedding into smaller molecular packets, so that molecular packets have higher diffusivity to reach the receiver bionanomachine. The receiver bionanomachine then performs packet reassembly to retrieve the original molecular message from a set of molecular packets that it receives. To examine the effect of packet fragmentation and reassembly, we develop analytical models and conduct numerical experiments. Numerical results show that packet fragmentation and reassembly can improve the message delivery performance. Numerical results also indicate that packet fragmentation and reassembly may degrade the performance in the presence of drift in the environment.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Biotechnology / methods*
  • Communication
  • Computers, Molecular*
  • DNA / chemistry
  • DNA / metabolism
  • Models, Molecular*
  • Nanotechnology / methods*

Substances

  • DNA