Forward and Reverse Coding for Chromosome Transfer in Bacterial Nanonetworks

Nano Communication Networks. 2014. Vol. 5. No. 1-2. P. 15–24.

Petrov V., Balasubramaniam S., Lale R., Moltchanov D., Lio' P., Koucheryavy E.

Bacteria has been proposed in recent years as one approach to achieve molecular communication. Bacterial cells can harbour DNA encoded information and can deliver this information from one nanomachine to another by swimming (motility). One aspect of bacterial communication that could further enhance the performance of information delivery in bacterial nanonetworks is conjugation. Conjugation involves forming a physical connection between the bacteria in order to transfer DNA molecules (i.e., plasmids or chromosomes). However, the fragile physical connection between the bacteria is prone to breakage, in particular under mechanical stress. In this paper, a simple Forward and Reverse coding process is proposed to enhance the performance of information delivery in bacterial nanonetworks. The coding process involves segmenting messages into blocks and integrating this into the bacterial chromosome. Simulation work have been conducted to validate the efficiency of the coding process, where the results have shown positive performance compared to approaches that do not utilize coding or pure conjugation.

Keywords: biological systems, telecommunications, Algorithmic information theory