ChemSICal-Net: Timing-Controlled Chemical Reaction Network for Successive Interference Cancellation in Molecular Multiple Access

2026-03-12

AI Summary

This work addresses the challenge of signal separation from multiple nanoscale transmitters in molecular communication by proposing a novel receiver architecture based on chemical reaction networks (CRNs). For the first time, a chemical oscillator is integrated to provide temporal control, enabling successive interference cancellation (SIC) for decoupling multi-source messages. To enhance system robustness, the design incorporates adaptive Bayesian optimization with a Gaussian process surrogate model for automatic parameter tuning. Simulation results demonstrate that the proposed approach achieves a twofold improvement in detection accuracy within a shorter decision time and nearly an order-of-magnitude gain in parameter configuration efficiency, thereby validating the critical role of multiscale co-design in advancing molecular communication systems.

Technology Category

• Multiagent Systems: Agent Communication
• Planning, Routing, and Scheduling: Optimization of Spatio-temporal Systems
• Search and Optimization: Mixed Discrete/Continuous Search

Application Category

• Systems and Infrastructure for Web, Mobile and WoT: Applied ML and AI for Web-based mobile applications
• Economics, Online Markets and Human Computation: Incentives in network design for Web infrastructures and ecosystems
• Search and Retrieval-Augmented AI: Efficiency and scalability of Web search engines

Abstract

MC networks are envisioned to enable synthetic information exchange between nanoscale biological entities. For many algorithm proposals in the MC research field, the question of implementation at nanoscales and in biological environments remains open. Chemical reaction networks (CRNs) provide a natural framework to model computing processes in biological systems, while detailed simulations capture realistic stochastic effects. In this work, we present ChemSICal-Net, a comprehensive CRN simulation model of a chemical receiver implementing successive interference cancellation (SIC) to differentiate messages from multiple transmitters. We present the structure of the SIC algorithm in the form of basic chemical building blocks and incorporate clocked timing control by a chemical oscillator. We propose an adaptive Bayesian optimization (BO) scheme with a Gaussian process surrogate to find appropriate values for the reaction rate constants and the initial concentrations and show that it outperforms baseline methods from related work based on a fair computational cost metric. Then, the performance of the ChemSICal-Net framework is evaluated stochastically across a range of clock speeds and in different configurations focusing on communication system metrics such as detection accuracy and decision time. Our results highlight that the timing via a chemical clock can improve the detection accuracy by a factor of 2 in scenarios with shorter decision times, which underlines how the trade-off between decision time and detection probability can shape CRN design choices. The BO scheme is shown to reliably optimize parameters for different configurations by approximately one order of magnitude compared to the non-optimized case. Our system reveals the need for a multi-scale approach with external BO and stochastic simulation of molecular reaction dynamics for communication-metric-focused system design.

Problem

• Molecular Communication
• Chemical Reaction Networks
• Successive Interference Cancellation
• Nanoscale Computing
• Timing Control

Innovation

• Chemical Reaction Networks
• Successive Interference Cancellation
• Molecular Communication
• Bayesian Optimization
• Chemical Oscillator