Experimental Research in Synthetic Molecular Communications – Part II

Abstract

In this second part of our survey on experimental research in Synthetic Molecular Communication (SMC), we review works on long-range SMC systems, i.e., systems with communication ranges of more than a few millimeters. Despite the importance of experimental research for the evolution of SMC towards a mature communication paradigm that will eventually support revolutionary applications beyond the reach of today’s prevalent communication paradigms, the existing body of literature is still comparatively sparse. Long-range SMC systems have been proposed in the literature for information transmission in two types of fluid media, liquid and air. While both types of SMC systems, i.e., liquid-based and air-based systems, rely on encoding and transmitting information using molecules, they differ substantially in terms of the physical system designs and in the type of applications they are intended for. In this article, we present a systematic characterization of experimental works on long-range SMC that reveals the major drivers of these works in terms of the respective target applications. Furthermore, the physical designs for long-range SMC proposed in the literature are comprehensively reviewed. In this way, our survey will contribute to making experimental research in this field more accessible and identifying novel directions for future research.