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Funding Information: Sasitharan Balasubramaniam Guest Editors sasib@tssg.org Telecommunication Software and Systems Group, Waterford Institute of Technology, Ireland Christof Teuscher christof@teuscher-lab.com Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Portland State University, Portland, USA Dmitri Botvich dbotvich@tssg.org Telecommunication Software and Systems Group, Waterford Institute of Technology, Ireland Adriele Prina Mello prinamea@tcd.ie CRANN - Naughton Institute, Trinity College, Dublin, Ireland The field of nanotechnology has established itself for nearly two decades. During this period, a vast amount of research has been dedicated towards various developments in the area that improved potential applications of nanotechnology. Examples include advanced functional materials, biocompatible interfaces based on organic and inorganic materials for industrial, green energy, and biological applications and/or nanoscale computing. The common ground in all these developments is the strong inter-disciplinary approach taken by researchers, which is focused on the application scope of these technologies or the challenge of producing devices and materials at such miniature dimensions. The area of nano communication is still in its infancy, although growing steadily. However, due to the high inter-disciplinary nature of this field, it is crucial that the Information Communication and Technology (ICT) community is well aware of the progress made by other disciplines that are being investigated. With this background knowledge, the ICT community can foster new research ideas that can augment and support research of other disciplines to help advance the field of nanotechnology. This was at the origin of the current special issue, which goal is to showcase the inter-disciplinary efforts currently being undertaken in the area of nano communication. Consequently highlights and links between the different disciplines involved are secondary goals of the issue. The special issue attracted numerous papers from various disciplines, ranging from biochemistry, materials science, computer science, electrical engineering, as well as biophysics. We have selected 7 high-quality papers covering topics ranging from networks of carbon nanotubes to unconventional computing at nanoscale. In the following, we will give a brief overview on the different contributions. One important requirement of communication at the nanoscale is the ability to create networks from synthetic components. Creating such artificial networks can provide better interfaces and better compatibility with biological systems. In the paper “Nanotube-interconnected Liposome Network” by Ilona Wegrzyn, Haijian Zhang, Owe Orwar, and Aldo Jersorka, the authors present an artificial Nanotube Vesicle Network (NVN). The paper presents various stages of creating the network, starting from phospholipid molecules used for creating the components, to the creation of the nanotubes to interconnect the different vesicles. The authors then go on to discuss various properties that can be achieved from the NVNs, such as changes in the geometry of the network, the different transport properties, or the ability to create compartments within the vesicles. The paper provides strong evidence for the feasibility of developing NVN networks in the way proposed by the authors. Molecular communication is one approach towards enabling communication at the nanoscale, which is a paradigm shift from conventional communication systems. The goal of molecular communication is to convert information into biomolecules, to transport the biomolecules to distant receivers, which in turn will decode the information. In the paper “Design of self-organizing microtubule networks for molecular communication” by Akihiro Enomoto, Michael J. Moore, Tatsuya Suda, and Kazuhiro Oiwa, the self-organizing formation of microtubule rails that can connect between nanomachines is presented. Through the self-organization process, nanomachines can form complex networks between each other. Once formed, the molecular motors will walk along the rails and transport biomoleculuar information between the devices. The authors also present wet lab experiments to validate their approach. One promising material in the field of nanotechnology is carbon nanotubes. Numerous types of applications have resulted from the use of carbon nanotubes in communication networks (e.g., nanotube based nanoradio transceivers). The paper “Electronic Transport on carbon nanotube networks: a multiscale computational approach” by Luiz F.C. Pereira and Mauro S. Ferreira, presents a detailed study on the transport properties of carbon nanotubes. The paper discusses properties of carbon nanotube networks, in particular for CNT films. The authors modeled the electronic transport in carbon nanotube films by integrating various disciplines (e.g., electromagnetism, quantum physics, and statistics). The focus of the paper includes the connectivity of carbon nanotubes and how they are used to model the electronic transport, the resistance of carbon nanotube networks, and how this measure could be performed from both a macrosopic (end-to-end) and microscopic perspective. Throughout the paper, the authors compare their analytic models to the experimental work they conducted. Ensuring the reliability of communication at the nanoscale is a major challenge in comparison to ensuring reliability in conventional communication systems. The paper “Model for biological communication in a nanofabricated cell-mimic driven by stochastic resonance” by David K. Karig, Piro Siuti, Roy D. Dar, Scott T. Retterer, Mitchel J. Doktycz, and Michael L. Simpson, investigates the propagation of molecules between different compartments of a cell mimic array that is controlled through a gene regulatory network. The authors describe the mechanism of molecule propagation through stochastic resonance, and in particular what influence gene expression noise will have on the distance propagation. This study is essential for designing reliable communication in nano communication devices. The development of computing systems and paradigms are as important as the development of the communication systems. This mutual relationship has resulted in advancements in both fields. A good example is the Internet, which has “co-evolved” based on communication and computing systems. In the same way molecular computing is essential and can play a crucial role for nano communication. The paper “Computational Modalities of Belousov–Zhabotinsky Encapsulated Vesicles” by Julian Charles Holley, Andy Adamatzky, Larry Bull, Ben De Lacy Costello, and Ishrat Jahan presents a molecular computing system based on vesicles. The paper employs a chemical-computing-based solution for the implementation of simple logic gates. The authors use Belousov–Zhabotinsky (BZ) reactions and harness the waves that flow from one vesicle to the next for computation and communication. By arranging the geometry and shape of the vesicles, different types of gates can be achieved, including complex circuitry, such as an adder. The authors also present theoretical concepts of their solution, as well as preliminary experiments to demonstrate a simple logic function. The paper “Towards biomolecule-based information processing using engineered nanopores” by Jonathan S. Ellis, Gregoire Herzog, and Paul Galvin presents another solution of molecular computing using nanopores. While several researchers have looked in the past at creating logic computation from biological components (e.g., enzyme, DNA, or membrane-based computing), this paper discusses how information processing can be achieved in engineered nanopores. One interesting aspect of the proposed solution is the fact that the evaluation can be performed at the single molecule level by using nanopores. This could provide fine-grained manipulation and evaluation with single molecule precision, thus providing extreme accuracy. Another important aspect of communication, in particular in large-scale distributed networks, is the synchronization between the different devices, which is also of importance at the nanoscale. The paper “Automata Modeling of Quorum Sensing for Nanocommunication Networks” by Sergi Abadal and Ian F. Akyildiz presents a bio-inspired approach of synchronization using quorum sensing found in bacteria networks. The authors have focused on modeling quorum sensing using automata theory. Through the use of automata theory, they were able to show the internal functionalities of quorum sensing, ranging from the process of sensing the autoinducers in the environment to the coordination behavior between bacteria. The work is important for emerging nanodevices, where biological mechanisms may be integrated into artificial devices to enable the synchronization of components. We believe that this special issue showcases an exciting mix of interdisciplinary work in the area of nanoscale communication and computation. As the reader can see from the above descriptions, we have also focused on collecting papers with an experimental component in order for the ICT community to better understand the experimental aspect in this area. We would like to thank the authors, the reviewers, and the editor-in-chief, Prof. Ian F. Akyildiz, for all the help in making this special issue as exciting as it is. A great thanks also goes to the journal manager, Devaprakash Kothandapani, for the assistance. We hope this special issue will create a significant impact in the ICT community and will contribute in fostering interdisciplinary collaborations, to address the many exciting research challenges in the growing area of nano communication. Sasitharan Balasubramaniam received his Bachelor (Electrical and Electronic Engineering) and Ph.D. degrees from the University of Queensland in 1998 and 2005, respectively, and Masters (Computer and Communication Engineering) degree in 1999 from Queensland University of Technology. He is currently heading the Bio-inspired Network research theme unit at the Telecommunication Software and Systems Group, Waterford Institute of Technology, Ireland. Sasitharan was worked in a number of Irish funded projects (e.g. Science Foundation Ireland, PRTLI) and EU projects. His research interests includes Bio-inspired Future Internet, as well as molecular communications. Christof Teuscher currently holds an assistant professor position in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE) with joint appointments in the Department of Computer Science and the Systems Science Graduate Program. He also holds an Adjunct Assistant Professor appointment in Computer Science at the University of New Mexico (UNM). Teuscher obtained his M.Sc. and Ph.D. degree in computer science from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne (EPFL) in 2000 and 2004, respectively. His main research interests include emerging computing architectures and paradigms, biologically-inspired computing, complex & adaptive systems, and cognitive science. Dmitri Botvich received his Bachelor’s and Ph.D. degrees in Mathematics from Moscow State University, Faculty of Mechanics and Mathematics, Russia, in 1980 and 1984, respectively. He is currently the Chief Scientist of the Scientific and Technical Board at the Telecommunication Software and Systems Group, Waterford Institute of Technology (Ireland). He currently leads the PRTLI FutureComm project at the TSSG, and has coordinated and worked in a number of EU and Science Foundation Ireland projects. His research interests include bio-inspired autonomic network management, security, trust management, wireless networking, queuing theory, optimization methods, and mathematical physics. Adriele Prina Mello received his Master in Science degree in Material Science and Engineering from the Faculty of Engineering at Polytechnic of Turin (Italy) and Ph.D. degree in Bioengineering and Nanobiotechnology from Trinity College Dublin (Ireland). He is currently an Investigator at the Centre for Research on Adaptive Nanostructures and Nanodevices (CRANN, TCD) and a Senior Research Fellow at the School of Medicine. He is also part of the Coordination Team of a Large FP7 project and vice-chairman of the Nanodiagnostic Working Group of the European Technology Platform in NanoMedicine. His research interests are focused on advanced translation research in NanoMedicine (in vitro/in vivo diagnostic and imaging), dynamic interaction between nano-developed-products and biologically relevant models (nanotoxicology, nanobiocompatibility and nanobiotechnology), microfluidic, biomedical devices and tissue engineering applications of nanotechnology and nanomaterials. |
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