MC for Agriculture: A Framework for Nature-inspired Sustainable Pest Control

In agriculture, molecular communication (MC) is envisioned as a framework to address critical challenges such as smart pest control. While conventional approaches mostly rely on synthetic plant protection products, posing high risks for the environment, harnessing plant signaling processes can lead to innovative approaches for nature-inspired sustainable pest control. In this paper, we investigate an approach for sustainable pest control and reveal how the MC paradigm can be employed for analysis and optimization. In particular, we consider a system where herbivore-induced plant volatiles (HIPVs), specifically methyl salicylate (MeSA), is encapsulated into microspheres deployed on deployed on plant leaves. The controlled release of MeSA from the microspheres, acting as transmitters (TXs), supports pest deterrence and antagonist attraction, providing an eco-friendly alternative to synthetic plant protection products. Based on experimental data, we investigate the MeSA release kinetics and obtain an analytical model. To describe the propagation of MeSA in farming environments, we employ a three dimensional (3D) advection-diffusion model, incorporating realistic wind fields which are predominantly affecting particle propagation, and solve it by a finite difference method (FDM). The proposed model is used to investigate the MeSA distribution for different TX arrangements, representing different practical microsphere deployment strategies. Moreover, we introduce the coverage effectiveness index (CEI) as a novel metric to quantify the environmental coverage of MeSA. This analysis offers valuable guidance for the practical development of microspheres and their deployment aimed at enhancing coverage and, consequently, the attraction of antagonistic insects.

The CAM Model: An in vivo Testbed for Molecular Communication Systems

Molecular communication (MC) research increasingly focuses on biomedical applications like health monitoring and drug delivery, demanding testing in realistic living environments. Elevating MC research requires developing advanced in vivo testbeds. We introduce the chorioallantoic membrane (CAM) model as the first versatile 3D in vivo MC platform. The CAM, a highly vascularized membrane in fertilized chicken eggs, is established in bioengineering, cancer research, and drug development. Its biological realism, reproducibility, and versatility make it ideal for next-generation MC testbeds, bridging proof-of-concept systems and practical applications. We comprehensively characterize the CAM model's properties and MC system relevance. Through experimental studies, we investigate fluorescent molecule distribution in the CAM's closed-loop vascular system. We derive an analytical model using the wrapped normal distribution to describe particle propagation in dispersive closed-loop systems dominated by diffusion and flow. Parametric models are developed to approximate particle dynamics in the CAM, with parameters estimated via nonlinear least squares curve fitting. A dataset of 69 regions from 25 eggs validates our models. We analyze parameter relationships and biological plausibility. Finally, we develop a parametric model for long-term particle behavior and liver accumulation in chick embryos.

Heuristic Barycenter Modeling of Fully Absorbing Receivers in Diffusive Molecular Communication Channels

In a recent paper it has been shown that to model a diffusive molecular communication (MC) channel with multiple fully absorbing (FA) receivers, these can be interpreted as sources of negative particles from the other receivers' perspective. The barycenter point is introduced as the best position where to place the negative sources. The barycenter is obtained from the spatial mean of the molecules impinging on the surface of each FA receiver. This paper derives an expression that captures the position of the barycenter in a diffusive MC channel with multiple FA receivers. In this work, an analytical model inspired by Newton's law of gravitation is found to describe the barycenter, and the result is compared with particle-based simulation (PBS) data. Since the barycenter depends on the distance between the transmitter and receiver and the observation time, the condition that the barycenter can be assumed to be at the center of the receiver is discussed. This assumption simplifies further modeling of any diffusive MC system containing multiple FA receivers. The resulting position of the barycenter is used in channel models to calculate the cumulative number of absorbed molecules and it has been verified with PBS data in a variety of scenarios.

Channel Characterization of Diffusion-based Molecular Communication with Multiple Fully-absorbing Receivers

In this paper an analytical model is introduced to describe the impulse response of the diffusive channel between a pointwise transmitter and a given fully-absorbing (FA) receiver in a molecular communication (MC) system. The presence of neighbouring FA nanomachines in the environment is taken into account by describing them as sources of negative molecules. The channel impulse responses of all the receivers are linked in a system of integral equations. The solution of the system with two receivers is obtained analytically. For a higher number of receivers the system of integral equations is solved numerically. It is also shown that the channel impulse response shape is distorted by the presence of the interferers. For instance, there is a time shift of the peak in the number of absorbed molecules compared to the case without interference, as predicted by the proposed model. The analytical derivations are validated by means of particle based simulations.