Modelling the reception process in diffusion-based molecular communication channels

Implementing a realistic communication system using a diffusion-based molecular channel requires a well justified model for the reception process at the receiver nano-machine. In this paper, we model the reception process at a receiver nano-machine by means of ligand-receptor binding kinetics. For this purpose, we use a diffusion-based physical channel model and we show that the reception process can be interpreted as a low-pass filter. Then, we evaluate the effect of the reception process on the statistical characteristics of the noise added by the diffusion channel. In order to suppress the effect of the ligand-receptor binding process, we design a whitening filter which is placed before the demodulator and detection blocks at the receiver nano-machine.