1. The Challenges of the Internet of Nano Things
Sasitharan Balasubramaniam (Sasi)
Nano Communication Centre
Department of Electronics and Communications Engineering
Tampere University of Technology

2. Outline Nanotechnology Nano Communications
Nanomachines
Nano Communications
Molecular Communications
Internet of Nano Things (IoNT)
Applications of IoNT
Plans for Horizon2020

3. Nanotechnology
Concept was first proposed by Richard Feyman in in his nobel prize acceptance speech
“Plenty of room at the bottom”
Nanotechnology are devices on the scale of the order of one billionth of a meter(10-9)
Example materials: Graphene, Nanocrystallites, Nanoparticles
Numerous healthcare applications
Improved monitoring of chronic diseases
Accurate drug delivery
Nanorobots that can perform surgery
Other applications include Aeronautics, Environmental Science

4. Nanomachine to treat cancer
Issue with current chemotherapy is that drugs kill good cells
Aim – deliver drug to targeted areas
Cut the dosage down by hundred – thousand times
Developed at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA)
Honeycomb nanostructure that holds the drug particles
Valves releases particles. Numerous approaches:
Chemical agent
Light

5. DNA Nanorobot Developed at Wyss Institute
Robotic device developed from DNA
DNA origami – 3D shapes created from folding DNA
Two halves connected with a hinge, and shut using DNA latches
The latches can be designed to recognize certain cell proteins and disease markers
Hold molecules with encoded instructions (antibody fragments)
Used on two types of cancer cells (leukemia and lymphoma)

6. Problems and Challenges
Scale of nanodevices allows us to….
Reach hard to access areas…..
Access vital information at a whole new level (molecular information)…..
Devices of the future will be built from nanomaterials
Limitation – limited functionalities!!
Communication and networking between nanomachines would further advance their capabilities and functionalities

7. What is the answer…..???

8. Nano Communications! Two broad Areas…………
Electromagnetic (EM) Nano Communications
Molecular Communications

9. Molecular Communication
Nanomachine
Bacteria
I. F. Akyildiz, F. Brunetti, C. Blasquez, “Nanonetworks: A New Communication Paradigm”, Computer Networks, 52, 2008
Sender nanomachines encode information into information molecules (e.g. DNA, proteins, peptides)
Information can be transmitted through diffusion or active transport
Ability to create communication systems and networks using biological components and processes that are found in nature
Interdisciplinary research (nanotechnology, communication technology, biochemistry, molecular biology)

10. Diffusion-based Molecular Communications
Communication is performed through diffusion of molecules
Information is embedded into the molecules
Ideally this is suited to fluidic medium
I. F. Akyildiz, J.M. Jornet, M. Pierobon,,"Nanonetworks: A New Frontier in Communications," Communications of the ACM, vol. 54, no. 11, pp , November 2011.

11. Bacteria Communication Nanonetworks (1)
Bacteria can hold genetic information (plasmids)
Mess. 2
Mess. 1
Bacteria can swim – possible attraction through the process of chemotaxis
M. Eisenbach, “Bacterial Chemotaxis”, Encyclopedia of Life Sciences, 2001
λRandom
Chemoattractant B A
20μm
λBiased
L. C. Cobo-Rus, I. F. Akyildiz, "Bacteria-based Communication in Nanonetworks", Nano Communication Networks, vol. 1, no. 4, pp , December 2010.

12. DTN Bacteria Nanonetworks
Opportunistic multi-hop routing in bacteria nanonetworks using chemotaxis and conjugation. Each Bacteria is akin to a mobile node.
Chemoattractant
Emitter 3 3 3
Bacteria with transferred
message
Chemoattractant
Bacteria conjugation
point 2 2 2 1
Relay Node 1 1
(b)
(c)
(a)
Sasitharan Balasubramaniam, Pietro Lio’, Multi-hop Conjugation based Bacteria Nanonetworks, IEEE Transactions on NanoBioscience, vol. 12, no. 1, March  

13. Smart Organ
Through tissue engineering we can develop various body parts
Tissues -> Organs (skin, bone)
Using nanomaterial scaffolds, we can grow cells on the scaffold into tissue
Utilizing 3D bioprinting to develop organs
Challenge – integration to the existing system within the body
Integrate sensors into the tissue (Smart tissue)
Robert Langer (BBC, October 2013)

14. Internet of Things Environmental Sensors BAN
Physical Interconnection of devices, objects……integrated with virtual interconnection of services
A large number of these devices are MINITIARIZED devices (sensors, BAN)!!!

15. Internet of NANO Things
Environmental
Sensors
BAN
MORE MINITIARIZED -> Interconnection of devices at Nanoscale AND connection to the wider Internet

16. IoNT Architecture Services Layer Context Management layer
Molecular
nanonetworks
Micro-
gateway
nano-sensors on clothings
Phone surface sensors –
Nano-sensors
For environmental monitoring
Context Management layer
Query routing
EM – nano communication
Micro-gateway
Pathogens
Chemicals
Sweat
Blood
Allergens
nano-sensors
Services Layer

17. IoNT Challenges: Context Models
Smart Home
Smart Office
Ontology
Bio medical
Gene
Shopping Env.
Context
Processing
Inference and
Deduction
Service
Directory
Nano
Sensors
Raw
Data
Micro
Broker
Context Model
Data Collection
Services
Micro-Context
Application
User Profile
Medical Condition
BAN2
BAN
Molecular Communication
Nano-sensor
Bacteria Nanonets
Calcium Signaling
Temperature
Pressure
Accelerometer
Location
X-value
Y-value
Z-value
Device
Mobile Phone
Nano Sensors
EM nano
Bio nano-sensor
Contains
LocatedAT
Activity
PerformingAt
(a)
(b)
Cross domain ontologies
Ontologies and Knowledge base
Cross domains of heterogeneous knowledge bases

18. IoNT Challenges: Service Models
EM Nanonets
Molecular
Communications
Data Collection
Services A1
Services A2
Application
Services A
ServiceComposition”EM Nanonets”
ServiceComposition”Molecular Nets”
Micro-Context
ContextInteraction
Micro-Context
Micro-Context
Multitude of nanodevices and micro-gateways
Big data from nanoscale sensors and networks
New distributed service models (lightweight services)

19. Applications (1): Body Area NanoNetworks (BAN2)
Enzyme protocols
Cell
Nucleus
Micro-gateway
Short range
transmission
Message biomolecule
Synthetic
Nanosensor
Long range
New healthcare monitoring approaches
BAN -> BAN2
Heterogeneous molecular communication networks
Short range (Calcium signalling)
Medium range (Bacteria)
Long range (Hormones)
Baris Atakan, Ozgur B. Akan, Sasitharan Balasubramaniam, Body Area NanoNetworks with Molecular Communications in Nanomedicine, IEEE Communications Magazine, January 2012.

20. Applications (2): Smart Cities
Smart Agriculture
Contamination control
Urban agriculture
(hydroponics)
Smart Water
Contamination control
Infrastructure monitoring (smart pipes)
Smart Energy
Monitoring of renewable energy infrastructure
( graphene-based solar panels)
Monitoring of biofuel production
Smart Transport
Pollution control

21. EU FET Project Plan (1)
Coordinated Support Action (FET OPEN2 - September 2014) Planned submission September 2014 (7 partners including TSSG - WIT, Ireland (coordinator); Koc, Turkey, TUT (Finland)
FET Open (FET OPEN1 - September 2014): Internet of Bacteria Things
Collaborator: Prof. Ozgur B. Akan, Koc University
Partners: University of Helsinki (Finland), Tampere University of Technology (Finland), Koc University (Turkey), University of Cambridge (UK), Tyndall Institute (Ireland)
Objective: To realize a simple bacteria nanonetwork that interfaces to the Internet (software services)
Bridge ICT to Molecular Biology World. Linking communication of behaviour of bacteria to the software services in Telecommunications.
Bacteria communication will be conducted through wet lab experiments (Univ. of Helsinki).

22. EU FET Project Plan (2) Services Services Services Bacteria
Microgateway
Bacteria

23. Conclusion Basics of Nanotechnology Examples of Nanomachines
Nano Communication
Electro-magnetic Nano Communications
Molecular Communications
Internet of Nano Things
Body Area Nanonetworks
Smart Cities Applications
Plans for Horizon2020