Channel Modeling and Analysis for Molecular Motors in Nano-scale Communications

Molecular motor communication (MMC) is a class of walkway based molecular communication, which is realized through motor proteins. In MMC, chemical energy is converted into the mechanical transport of molecules on cellular tracks named microtubules. In this paper, a channel propagation model of MMC nanonetworks is proposed, capturing the stochastic nature of molecular motors, transport bidirectionality, chemical energy conversion, and the topology of microtubules. Closed-form expressions of the probability of presence, delay, and attenuation are derived. The results are validated against Markov Chain Monte-Carlo simulations. Unlike diffusion-based and flow-based communication, MMC is active, low-delay, bidirectional, controllable, and can carry significantly large molecules. These characteristics make MMC an ideal candidate for realizing nanonetworks.