Timing Channels with Multiple Identical Quanta

Abstract

We consider mutual information between release times and capture times for a set of M identical quanta traveling independently from a source to a target. The quanta are immediately captured upon arrival, first-passage times are assumed independent and identically distributed and the quantum emission times are constrained by a deadline. The primary application area is intended to be inter/intracellular molecular signaling in biological systems whereby an organelle, cell or group of cells must deliver some message (such as transcription or developmental instructions) over distance with reasonable certainty to another organelles, cells or group of cells. However, the model can also be applied to communications systems wherein indistinguishable signals have random transit latencies.