Amplitude-Width Encoding for Error Correction in Bacterial Communication Networks

In this work, we consider the problem of forward error correction in a multiple access molecular communication network with bacteria as transceivers. A number of forward error correction techniques have been developed to maximize throughput and achieve the lower bound on the bit error rate performance. All existing codes were developed for traditional networks and hence the constraints on computational complexity do not match that of bio-circuits. Designing reliable and accurate bio-circuits for operations like polynomial multiplication that are basic to FEC is extremely challenging. We propose and design Amplitude-Width Forward Error Correction, a simple and efficient FEC mechanism that can be implemented using bio-circuits reliably for real-time application. FEC techniques allow the receiver to detect and correct for errors by introducing redundancy in the message transmitted. EEC introduces redundancy by varying the on-period of the signal transmitted across senders. Senders with the same on-period are assigned amplitudes with maximum distance. Increasing the distance between amplitudes of senders with the same on-period increases the error resilience of the receiver. Bit error rate of the order of 10-2 is achieved using the proposed error correction mechanism.