Publication

Abstract : Nanonetworks deal with an interconnection of nanomachines (nano-electronic devices or biological cells) and involve modeling and characterization of the unique features of communication in the nanodomain (i.e., information transfer using terahertz frequency or by molecular communication). A biological cell uses molecular communication that involves communication of information-carrying intracellular or intercellular molecular signals to accomplish sophisticated biological functions like respiration, nerve impulse conduction, hormone secretion, etc. However, understanding the role of cellular signaling in normal cell functioning and also under pathological conditions requires systematic modeling of the network (i.e., the interconnection) of cells and incorporating proper mathematical models for quantification of the associated electrochemical phenomena. One form of cellular signaling is calcium signaling in which the concentration of a stream of calcium ions (Ca2+) is modulated spatio-temporally to bring about muscle contraction, cell differentiation, hormone secretion, etc. In this paper, we propose a four layer network architecture for nanonetwork viz., physical channel, information density control layer, interface control layer and environmental impact control layer, cells in that network communicate using calcium signaling, and we discuss the role of each of these layers in the signaling process. We develop a simulation tool using the base framework of N3Sim, and show the modulation of Ca2+ amplitude for different number of buffers in this simulator. Hence the simulation results are shown.