Abnormality Detection and Localization Schemes using Molecular Communication Systems: A Survey

Abnormality, defined as any abnormal feature in the system, may occur in different areas such as healthcare, medicine, cyber security, industry, etc. The detection and localization of the abnormality have been studied widely in wireless sensor networks literature where the sensors use electromagnetic waves for communication. Due to their invasiveness, bio-incompatibility, and high energy consumption for some applications, molecular communication (MC) has been introduced as an alternative approach, which enables promising systems for abnormality detection and localization. In this paper, we overview the MC-based abnormality detection and localization schemes. To do this, we propose a general MC system for abnormality detection and localization to encompass the most related works. The general MC-based abnormality detection and localization system consists of multiple tiers for sensing the abnormality and communication between different agents in the system. We describe different abnormality recognition methods, which can be used by the sensors to obtain information about the abnormality. Further, we describe the functional units of the sensors and different sensor features. We explain different interfaces for connecting the internal and external communication networks and generally model the sensing and communication channels. We formulate the abnormality detection and localization problem using MC systems and present a general framework for the externally-controllable localization systems. We categorize the MC-based abnormality detection schemes based on the sensor mobility, cooperative detection, and cooperative sensing/activation. We classify the localization approaches based on the sensor mobility and propulsion mechanisms. Finally, we provide the ongoing challenges and future research directions to realize and develop MC-based systems for detection and localization of the abnormality.