lar nanonetworks require the devel-
opment of new networking protocols
suited for the nature of this new para-
digm. In our vision, the study of the
molecular network protocols will fol-
low a twofold approach: on the one
hand, network structures and pro-
tocols will be directly inspired from
the observation of communication
and signaling processes from nature
(biologically inspired molecular net-
works); on the other hand, classical
networking paradigms will be adapted
for their use with synthesized molecu-
lar nanonetworks. In both of the two
cases, these protocols will have to take
into account the delay in the propaga-
tion of molecular information, which
is considerably high if compared to
electromagnetic communications.
The study of a MAC protocol should
also take into account the effects of
the interaction of multiple molecu-
lar transmitters in the same environ-
ment. The performance of the molec-
ular communication system in terms
of attenuation and delay will likely
vary due to the interactions physically
occurring between molecules emit-
ted by different transmitters, such as
collisions or electrical and chemical
reactions. Therefore, a MAC protocol
will be required to minimize the in-
terference between different emitters
and to maximize the overall through-
put of the network. Moreover, rout-
ing and addressing aspects will be
required to enable communication
between multiple source and destina-
tion points. In our vision, any form of
addressing will be likely embedded
within the structure of the molecules
that compose the information mes-
sage, such as their type or even electri-
cal charge. Molecular protocols will
also be studied in relation to the par-
ticular adopted molecular commu-
nication technique. As an example,
when pheromones are used as infor-
mation carriers, routing protocols will
have to take into account the fact that
their propagation in the air medium is
highly dependent on the direction of
the wind flow. Particular geographical
routing algorithms could exploit the
knowledge of the current and future
direction of the wind to achieve a di-
rection-based addressing. Another ex-
ample is given by the flagellated bacte-
ria communication, where addressing
can be achieved by engineering bac-
teria able to sense only some types of
attractants which are released only by
the targeted receivers.

conclusion

Nanonetworks will have a great impact in almost every field of our society ranging from health care to homeland security and environmental protection. In order to enable the communication among nanomachines, it is necessary to rethink existing communication paradigms and to define new communication alternatives stemming from the nature of the nanoscale. While the hardware underlying nanonetworks is still being developed, the engineering of new computing and data storage architectures for nanoscale devices, the definition of new information encoding and modulation for nanomachines using different nanocommunication paradigms, and the development of-nanonetworking structures and protocols are necessary contributions expected from the ICT field.

acknowledgment

This work was supported by the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) under Grant No. CNS-1110947 and Fundación Caja Madrid.

 

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Ian F. Akyildiz ( [e-mail]) is the Ken byers
Chair Professor in telecommunication, school of
electrical and Computer engineering, georgia Institute
of technology, atlanta, and director of the broadband
wireless networking laboratory.
Josep Miquel Jornet ( [e-mail]) is
a Ph.d. student at broadband wireless networking
laboratory, school of electrical and Computer
engineering, georgia Institute of technology, atlanta.
Massimiliano Pierobon ( [e-mail]) is
a Ph.d. student at broadband wireless networking
laboratory, school of electrical and Computer
engineering, georgia Institute of technology, atlanta.