Novel error-control coding techniques for molecular communication

In molecular communication via diffusion, information molecules diffusing in the environment are subject to Brownian motion. Due to probabilistic propagation, the arrival of molecules at the receiver is spread in time, leading to the reception of some molecules belonging to the previous symbol(s) during the upcoming symbol duration. Known as inter-symbol interference (ISI), this problem has been extensively studied in the literature by applying a large spectrum of techniques, mostly inspired by approaches in the wireless communication domain including channel coding techniques. Unfortunately, many known channel codes do not perform well in the molecular communications domain, since the diffusion channel features a significant memory component. In this thesis, novel methods for channel coding by incorporating the effect of ISI in the design of the channel codes for the molecular diffusion channel are proposed first. The results show that the proposed methods provide significant improvements in performance in terms of codeword error rate. Second, a novel channel coding method is proposed for molecular communication. The design of the proposed channel code takes into account the capability of a nano-device and the characteristics of the molecular communication channel. Simulation results show that the proposed method provides a significant improvement in terms of bit error rate. Moreover, a proof-of-concept implementation of the proposed coding scheme has been done on a macro-scale testbed. The reliability of the communication link is shown to be significantly increased.