A Promise of Realizable, Ultra-Scalable Communications at Nano-Scale:A Multi-Modal Nano-Machine Architecture

Wireless networks of nano-nodes will play a critical role in future medical, quality control, environmental monitoring and military applications. Nano-nodes are invisible/marginally visible to the human eye, ranging in size from approximately 100 μm to few nanometers. Nano-networking poses unique challenges, requiring ground-breaking solutions. First, the nano-scale imposes severe restrictions to the computational and communication capabilities of the nodes. Second, nano-nodes are not accessible for programming, configuration and debugging in the classical sense. Thus, a nano-network should be self-configuring, resilient and adaptive to environmental changes. Finally, all nano-networking protocols should be ultra-scalable, since a typical nano-network may comprise billions of nodes. The study contributes a novel paradigm for data dissemination in networking nano-machines, addressing these unique challenges. Relying on innovative analytical results on lattice algebra and nature-inspired processes, a novel data dissemination method is proposed. The nano-nodes exploit their environmental feedback and mature adaptively into network backbone or remain single network users. Such a process can be implemented as an ultra-scalable, low complexity, multi-modal nano-node architecture (physical layer), providing efficient networking and application services at the same time. Requiring existing manufacturing technology, the proposed architecture constitutes the first candidate solution for realizable nano-networking.