Nanotechnology is enabling the development of devices in a scale ranging from one to a few one hundred nanometers. Nanonetworks, i.e., the interconnection of nano-scale devices, are expected to expand the capabilities of single nano-machines by allowing them to cooperate and share information. Traditional communication technologies are not directly suitable for nanonetworks mainly due to the size and power consumption of existing transmitters, receivers and additional processing components. All these define a new communication paradigm that demands novel solutions. This talk is focused on two research tracks: Electromagnetic Communication and Molecular Communication between nano-scale machines.
In the first part, novel graphene-based plasmonic nano-antennas are presented. Starting from a novel conductivity model of graphene nanoribbons, the propagation of surface plasmons in graphene is characterized. The results reveal that these nano-antennas radiate in the Terahertz Band. Motivated by this result, a novel Terahertz Band channel model is presented, which reveals, among other peculiarities, a huge available bandwidth within the communication range envisioned for nanomachines. Also new communication mechanisms are developed such as femtosecond-long pulse-based modulations and low-weigh coding schemes, energy models and communication protocols.
In the second part, the molecular communication is presented which is a bio-inspired paradigm where the exchange of information is realized through the propagation of molecules. Novel stochastic models of noise sources in diffusion-based molecular communication are presented which reveal the main impairments suffered by the information exchange through this paradigm. Moreover, a closed-form expression of the information capacity is derived through the application of information theory to the molecular diffusion channel. The realization of microbial networks stemming from genetically modified bacteria is finally presented as a potential proof-of-concept for the aforementioned results and as a first possible avenue to future applications.
In the first part, novel graphene-based plasmonic nano-antennas are presented. Starting from a novel conductivity model of graphene nanoribbons, the propagation of surface plasmons in graphene is characterized. The results reveal that these nano-antennas radiate in the Terahertz Band. Motivated by this result, a novel Terahertz Band channel model is presented, which reveals, among other peculiarities, a huge available bandwidth within the communication range envisioned for nanomachines. Also new communication mechanisms are developed such as femtosecond-long pulse-based modulations and low-weigh coding schemes, energy models and communication protocols.
In the second part, the molecular communication is presented which is a bio-inspired paradigm where the exchange of information is realized through the propagation of molecules. Novel stochastic models of noise sources in diffusion-based molecular communication are presented which reveal the main impairments suffered by the information exchange through this paradigm. Moreover, a closed-form expression of the information capacity is derived through the application of information theory to the molecular diffusion channel. The realization of microbial networks stemming from genetically modified bacteria is finally presented as a potential proof-of-concept for the aforementioned results and as a first possible avenue to future applications.
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