{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,4,23]],"date-time":"2026-04-23T15:00:47Z","timestamp":1776956447293,"version":"3.51.4"},"reference-count":32,"publisher":"MDPI AG","issue":"1","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2021,12,22]],"date-time":"2021-12-22T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1640131200000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"funder":[{"DOI":"10.13039\/501100015494","name":"Instituto de Telecomunica\u00e7\u00f5es","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","award":["UIDB\/50008\/2020"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["UIDB\/50008\/2020"]}],"id":[{"id":"10.13039\/501100015494","id-type":"DOI","asserted-by":"publisher"}]}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["Sensors"],"abstract":"<jats:p>It is envisioned that healthcare systems of the future will be revolutionized with the development and integration of body-centric networks into future generations of communication systems, giving rise to the so-called \u201cInternet of Bio-nano things\u201d. Molecular communications (MC) emerge as the most promising way of transmitting information for in-body communications. One of the biggest challenges is how to minimize the effects of environmental noise and reduce the inter-symbol interference (ISI) which in an MC via diffusion scenario can be very high. To address this problem, channel coding is one of the most promising techniques. In this paper, we study the effects of different channel codes integrated into MC systems. We provide a study of Tomlinson, Cercas, Hughes (TCH) codes as a new attractive approach for the MC environment due to the codeword properties which enable simplified detection. Simulation results show that TCH codes are more effective for these scenarios when compared to other existing alternatives, without introducing too much complexity or processing power into the system. Furthermore, an experimental proof-of-concept macroscale test bed is described, which uses pH as the information carrier, and which demonstrates that the proposed TCH codes can improve the reliability in this type of communication channel.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/s22010041","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2021,12,23]],"date-time":"2021-12-23T02:02:57Z","timestamp":1640224977000},"page":"41","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":8,"title":["Low-Complexity Channel Codes for Reliable Molecular Communication via Diffusion"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"22","author":[{"given":"Sofia","family":"Figueiredo","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Telecommunications and Computer Engineering, Instituto Universit\u00e1rio de Lisboa (ISCTE-IUL), 1649-026 Lisboa, Portugal"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0003-3823-4470","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Nuno","family":"Souto","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Telecommunications and Computer Engineering, Instituto Universit\u00e1rio de Lisboa (ISCTE-IUL), 1649-026 Lisboa, Portugal"},{"name":"Instituto de Telecomunicacoes, 1049-001 Lisboa, Portugal"}]},{"given":"Francisco","family":"Cercas","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Telecommunications and Computer Engineering, Instituto Universit\u00e1rio de Lisboa (ISCTE-IUL), 1649-026 Lisboa, Portugal"},{"name":"Instituto de Telecomunicacoes, 1049-001 Lisboa, Portugal"}]}],"member":"1968","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2021,12,22]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref_1","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"957","DOI":"10.1109\/OJCOMS.2020.3010270","article-title":"6G Wireless Communication Systems: Applications, Requirements, Technologies, Challenges, and Research Directions","volume":"1","author":"Chowdhury","year":"2020","journal-title":"IEEE open j. Commun. Soc."},{"key":"ref_2","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"5309","DOI":"10.1109\/JIOT.2020.3037774","article-title":"Contention Resolution in Wi-Fi 6-Enabled Internet of Things Based on Deep Learning","volume":"8","author":"Chen","year":"2021","journal-title":"IEEE Internet Things J."},{"key":"ref_3","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Juwono, F.H., Reine, R., Wong, W.K., Sim, Z.A., and Gopal, L. (2021, January 7\u20139). Envisioning 6G Molecular Communication for IoBNT Diagnostic Systems. Proceedings of the GECOST, Miri, Malaysia.","DOI":"10.1109\/GECOST52368.2021.9538653"},{"key":"ref_4","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Shen, Q., Wu, J., Li, J., Zhang, X., and Wang, K. (2021, January 14\u201323). Communication Modeling for Targeted Delivery under Bio-DoS Attack in 6G Molecular Networks. Proceedings of the ICC 2021\u2014IEEE International Conference on Communications, Montreal, QC, Canada.","DOI":"10.1109\/ICC42927.2021.9500919"},{"key":"ref_5","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"858","DOI":"10.1109\/JPROC.2019.2913890","article-title":"Moving forward with molecular communication: From theory to human health applications [point of view]","volume":"107","author":"Akyildiz","year":"2019","journal-title":"Proc. IEEE"},{"key":"ref_6","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"1302","DOI":"10.1109\/JPROC.2019.2916081","article-title":"Transmitter and Receiver Architectures for Molecular Communications: A Survey on Physical Design With Modulation, Coding, and Detection Techniques","volume":"107","author":"Kuscu","year":"2019","journal-title":"Proc. IEEE"},{"key":"ref_7","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"107","DOI":"10.1109\/TMBMC.2020.3017146","article-title":"A comprehensive survey on hybrid communication in context of molecular communication and terahertz communication for body-centric nanonetworks","volume":"6","author":"Yang","year":"2020","journal-title":"IEEE Trans. Mol. Biol. Multi-Scale Commun."},{"key":"ref_8","first-page":"26","article-title":"The IEEE 1906.1 Standard: Some Guidelines for Strengthening Future Normalization in Electromagnetic Nanocommunications","volume":"2","year":"2018","journal-title":"IEEE Commun. Mag."},{"key":"ref_9","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"71","DOI":"10.1109\/TMBMC.2020.3004304","article-title":"Wireless Communication in Nanonetworks: Current Status, Prospect and Challenges","volume":"6","author":"Lu","year":"2020","journal-title":"IEEE Trans. Mol. Biol. Multi-Scale Commun."},{"key":"ref_10","unstructured":"Abd El-atty, S.M., El-taweel, A., and El-Rabaie, S. (June, January 31). Aspects of nanoscale information transmission in nanonetworks-based molecular communication. Proceedings of the JEC-ECC, Cairo, Egypt."},{"key":"ref_11","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"89","DOI":"10.1109\/TNB.2012.2190546","article-title":"Molecular Communication Using Brownian Motion With Drift","volume":"11","author":"Kadloor","year":"2012","journal-title":"IEEE Trans. Nanobiosci."},{"key":"ref_12","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"602","DOI":"10.1109\/JSAC.2010.100509","article-title":"A physical end-to-end model for molecular communication in nanonetworks","volume":"28","author":"Pierobon","year":"2010","journal-title":"IEEE J. Sel. Areas Commun."},{"key":"ref_13","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"1494","DOI":"10.1109\/COMST.2021.3066117","article-title":"A Survey of Molecular Communication in Cell Biology: Establishing a New Hierarchy for Interdisciplinary Applications","volume":"23","author":"Bi","year":"2021","journal-title":"IEEE Commun. Surv. Tutor."},{"key":"ref_14","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"24588","DOI":"10.1109\/ACCESS.2020.2970108","article-title":"ISI-Mitigating Channel Codes for Molecular Communication Via Diffusion","volume":"8","author":"Kislal","year":"2020","journal-title":"IEEE Access"},{"key":"ref_15","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Farsad, N., Pan, D., and Goldsmith, A. (2017, January 4\u20138). A Novel Experimental Platform for In-Vessel Multi-Chemical Molecular Communications. Proceedings of the GLOBECOM, Singapore.","DOI":"10.1109\/GLOCOM.2017.8255058"},{"key":"ref_16","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"202","DOI":"10.1109\/TMBMC.2015.2501745","article-title":"ISI Mitigation Techniques in Molecular Communication","volume":"1","author":"Tepekule","year":"2015","journal-title":"IEEE Trans. Mol. Biol. Multi-Scale Commun."},{"key":"ref_17","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"7","DOI":"10.1109\/COMST.2020.3048099","article-title":"A Survey on Modulation Techniques in Molecular Communication via Diffusion","volume":"23","author":"Kuran","year":"2021","journal-title":"IEEE Commun. Surv. Tutor."},{"key":"ref_18","first-page":"1051","article-title":"Towards High Data-Rate Diffusive Molecular Communications: Performance Enhancement Strategies","volume":"103161","author":"Gursoy","year":"2021","journal-title":"Digital Signal Process."},{"key":"ref_19","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"1952","DOI":"10.1109\/TSP.2021.3066069","article-title":"Frequency Domain Analysis and Equalization for Molecular Communication","volume":"69","author":"Huang","year":"2021","journal-title":"IEEE Trans. Signal Process."},{"key":"ref_20","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"200","DOI":"10.1109\/TNB.2016.2520566","article-title":"Low-complexity adaptive threshold detection for molecular communication","volume":"15","author":"Damrath","year":"2016","journal-title":"IEEE Trans. Nanobiosci."},{"key":"ref_21","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Lu, Y., Higgins, M.D., and Leeson, M.S. (2014, January 23\u201325). Diffusion based molecular communications system enhancement using high order hamming codes. Proceedings of the 2014 9th International Symposium on Communication Systems, Networks & Digital Sign (CSNDSP), Manchester, UK.","DOI":"10.1109\/CSNDSP.2014.6923869"},{"key":"ref_22","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"3991","DOI":"10.1109\/TCOMM.2015.2480752","article-title":"Comparison of Channel Coding Schemes for Molecular Communications Systems","volume":"63","author":"Lu","year":"2015","journal-title":"IEEE Trans. Commun."},{"key":"ref_23","unstructured":"Cercas, F.A.B., Tomlinson, M., and Albuquerque, A.A. (1993, January 17\u201322). TCH: A New Family of Cyclic Codes Length 2\/sup m\/. Proceedings of the ISIT, San Antonio, TX, USA."},{"key":"ref_24","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Cercas, F., Silva, J., Souto, C.N., and Dinis, R. (2009, January 9\u201311). Optimum bit-mapping of TCH codes. Proceedings of the IWSSC, Siena, Italy.","DOI":"10.1109\/IWSSC.2009.5286417"},{"key":"ref_25","unstructured":"Cercas, F. (1996). A New Family of Codes for Simple Receiver Implementation. [Ph.D. Thesis, Instituto Superior T\u00e9cnico]."},{"key":"ref_26","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"1256","DOI":"10.1109\/JPROC.2019.2919455","article-title":"Channel Modeling for Diffusive Molecular Communication\u2014A Tutorial Review","volume":"107","author":"Jamali","year":"2019","journal-title":"Proc. IEEE."},{"key":"ref_27","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"155","DOI":"10.1109\/LCOMM.2014.2375214","article-title":"Effect of Receptor Density and Size on Signal Reception in Molecular Communication via Diffusion With an Absorbing Receiver","volume":"19","author":"Akkaya","year":"2015","journal-title":"IEEE Commun. Lett."},{"key":"ref_28","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"118","DOI":"10.1109\/TMBMC.2017.2750145","article-title":"Analyzing Large-Scale Multiuser Molecular Communication via 3-D Stochastic Geometry","volume":"3","author":"Deng","year":"2017","journal-title":"IEEE Trans. Mol. Biol. Multi-Scale Commun."},{"key":"ref_29","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"226","DOI":"10.1109\/LWC.2017.2662689","article-title":"Chemical Propagation Pattern for Molecular Communications","volume":"6","author":"Yilmaz","year":"2017","journal-title":"IEEE Wirel. Commun."},{"key":"ref_30","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Vu, T.A., and Van Thanh, P. (2016, January 12\u201314). A simple diagram for data transmission using Manchester code. Proceedings of the ATC, Hanoi, Vietnam.","DOI":"10.1109\/ATC.2016.7764825"},{"key":"ref_31","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Arifin, B. (2012, January 24\u201327). GChem: Assisting students learning in general chemistry. Proceedings of the 2012 IEEE Symposium on Humanities, Science and Engineering Research, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.","DOI":"10.1109\/SHUSER.2012.6268865"},{"key":"ref_32","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Farsad, N., and Goldsmith, A. (2016, January 3\u20136). A molecular communication system using acids, bases and hydrogen ions. Proceedings of the IEEE 17th SPAWC, Edinburgh, UK.","DOI":"10.1109\/SPAWC.2016.7536834"}],"container-title":["Sensors"],"original-title":[],"language":"en","link":[{"URL":"https:\/\/www.mdpi.com\/1424-8220\/22\/1\/41\/pdf","content-type":"unspecified","content-version":"vor","intended-application":"similarity-checking"}],"deposited":{"date-parts":[[2025,10,11]],"date-time":"2025-10-11T07:51:34Z","timestamp":1760169094000},"score":1,"resource":{"primary":{"URL":"https:\/\/www.mdpi.com\/1424-8220\/22\/1\/41"}},"subtitle":[],"short-title":[],"issued":{"date-parts":[[2021,12,22]]},"references-count":32,"journal-issue":{"issue":"1","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2022,1]]}},"alternative-id":["s22010041"],"URL":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/s22010041","relation":{},"ISSN":["1424-8220"],"issn-type":[{"value":"1424-8220","type":"electronic"}],"subject":[],"published":{"date-parts":[[2021,12,22]]}}}