An Analytical Propagation Model for Diffusion-Based Molecular Communication Systems

A novel analytical propagation model for diffusive molecular communication systems in a three-dimensional fluid environment is derived. The model takes into account the geometry of a spherical receiver, the inclination angle, and the reaction rate of the receiver to accurately model the time-varying distribution and the number of absorbed information molecules at the receiver over a period of time. Accordingly, we derive an expression for the net number of accumulatively-absorbed information molecules at the surface of the receiver. We also study the bit error rate (BER) performance of diffusion-based molecular communications in the presence of the inter-symbol interference. Simulations based on the developed model show the impact of the transmitter-receiver distance, the reaction rate at the surface of the receiver and the diffusion constant of the environment on the fraction of absorbed molecules and the BER performance. A particle-based simulator is implemented to verify the accuracy of the proposed model. Moreover, our results are compared with that of a conventional model, where the geometry of the receiver and the inclination angle are ignored. It is shown that, especially at small transmitter-receiver separation distances, the proposed model predicts a significantly smaller number of absorbed molecules compared to the conventional models.