Information Theoretic Modeling of Interspecies Molecular Communication

TL;DR

The paper addresses how interspecies communication via plant-emitted VOCs unfolds under realistic environmental conditions, modeled as an advection–diffusion channel with cross-reactive receptors that encode information in binding-duration statistics. It develops an information-theoretic framework using a multinomial observation model for receptor binding and an FI-based capacity metric, yielding a time-averaged asymptotic capacity $C_{A_v}$ that accounts for wind, distance, and receptor kinetics. Key contributions include a binding-time based receiver model, a multinomial cross-reactive observation framework, and a FI-driven characterization of capacity under environmental parameters. The findings reveal nontrivial trade-offs where slower wind and moderate distances can enhance capacity, bridging biology and communication theory with implications for multi-symbol signaling and adaptive VOC emission strategies.

Abstract

Plants and insects communicate using chemical signals like volatile organic compounds (VOCs). A plant encodes information using different blends of VOCs, which propagate through the air to represent different symbolic information. This communication occurs in a noisy environment, characterized by wind, distance, and complex biological reactions. At the receiver, cross-reactive olfactory receptors produce stochastic binding events whose discretized durations form the receiver observation. In this paper, an information-theoretic framework is developed to model interspecies molecular communication (MC), where receptor responses are modeled probabilistically using a multinomial distribution. Numerical results show that the communication depends on environmental parameters such as wind speed, distance, and the number of released molecules. The proposed framework provides fundamental insights into the VOC-based interspecies communication under realistic biological and environmental conditions.

Figures (6)

• Figure 1: Schematic of Interspecies Molecular Communication.
• Figure 2: End-to-end receiver observation and decision pipeline based on multinomial binding-time bin count statistics.
• Figure 3: Temporal profile of total VOC concentration with $N$=1 $\mu$mol, $u_w$=700 cm/s and $v_r$=200 cm/s at the receiver (blue) for the corresponding transmitted binary symbol sequence (red square wave) along with emission times of VOC bursts (grey dashed lines).
• Figure 4: Time averaged asymptotic capacity as a function of number of VOC molecules released per burst $log_{10}(N)$ with $v_r$=200 cm/s.
• Figure 5: Time averaged asymptotic capacity w.r.t wind velocity for different source–receiver distances with $N$=1$\mu$mol and $v_r$=200 cm/s.