© 1999 Robert A. Freitas Jr. All Rights Reserved.

Robert A. Freitas Jr., Nanomedicine, Volume I: Basic Capabilities, Landes Bioscience, Georgetown, TX, 1999

7.2 Communication Modalities

As a general principle, any method by which materials or power can be transferred into, around, or out of the human body also may be employed as a mode of communication by imposing a time-varying modulation on the flow. For in vivo communications, the leading candidates are free-tissue chemical, acoustic, and electromagnetic broadcast, nanomechanical and cable systems, and dedicated communicytes. An extensive treatment of data protocol systems,¹⁶⁵² such as TCP/IP or any layered communication protocol, as they might apply to medical nanorobotic systems, would be interesting but is beyond the scope of this Volume.

Last updated on 18 February 2003