This paper provides a comprehensive review of the emerging research area of mobile molecular communication. In mobile molecular communication, sender and receiver bionanomachines as well as associated nodes in the environment exhibit dynamic behavior in the sense that they are mobile and communicate while they move. This paper presents a model of mobile bionanomachines and uses the model to discuss how groups of such bionanomachines working in unison can provide useful functionalities. This paper illustrates several functionalities by applying mobile molecular communication to the concept of cooperative drug delivery. Unsolved research challenges in this area are outlined and discussed.

This paper proposes a leader-follower-based model of mobile molecular communication networks for target detection applications. The proposed model divides the application functionalities of molecular communication networks into two types of mobile bio-nanomachine: leader and follower bio-nanomachines. Leader bio-nanomachines distribute in the environment to detect a target and create an attractant gradient around the target. Follower bio-nanomachines move according to the attractant gradient established by leader bio-nanomachines; they approach the target and perform necessary functionalities, such as releasing drug molecules. This paper develops mathematical expressions for the proposed model, describes wet laboratory experiments designed to estimate model parameters, and performs biologically realistic computer simulation experiments to evaluate the performance of the proposed model. The main contributions of this paper are to demonstrate the functional division of molecular communication networks, which will facilitate the design and development of molecular communication networks. Furthermore, insight into the application-level performance of molecular communication networks will be provided based on the proposed model.

In molecular communication, a group of biological nanomachines communicates through exchanging molecules and collectively performs application dependent tasks. An open research issue in molecular communication is to establish interfaces to interconnect the molecular communication environment (e.g., inside the human body) and its external environment (e.g., outside the human body). Such interfaces allow conventional devices in the external environment to control the location and timing of molecular communication processes in the molecular communication environment and expand the capability of molecular communication. In this paper, we first describe an architecture of externally controllable molecular communication and introduce two types of interfaces for biological nanomachines; bio-nanomachine to bio-nanomachine interfaces (BNIs) for bio-nanomachines to interact with other biological nanomachines in the molecular communication environment, and inmessaging and outmessaging interfaces (IMIs and OMIs) for bio-nanomachines to interact with devices in the external environment. We then describe a proof-of- concept design and wet laboratory implementation of the IMI and OMI, using biological cells. We further demonstrate, through mathematical modeling and numerical experiments, how an architecture of externally controllable molecular communication with BNIs and IMIs/OMIs may apply to pattern formation, a promising nanomedical application of molecular communication.