High-Order CSK Realization for MC via Spatially Distributed Multicellular Consortia

Progress in molecular communication (MC) relies on the development of novel and efficient signal processing mechanisms. Synthetic biology meets this need by allowing precise control over intracellular signaling and molecular exchange in engineered cells, enabling engineered signal processing tasks within living networks. Facilitated by this advancement, we design and engineer multicellular consortia with spatial segregation to realize an octuple concentration shift keying (8-CSK) transceiver—covering both modulation and demodulation—in a fully biological framework using simple and reusable single-input single-output cells. The proposed design demonstrates the scalability of our framework while maintaining the advantages of distributed computation, minimal genetic manipulation, and signal orthogonality. Additionally, we derive the mathematical framework of 8-CSK based on modular building blocks, enabling an accurate theoretical characterization of the system. Simulation results from the agent-based simulator—BSim—validate the feasibility of our extended design and demonstrate strong agreement with the theoretical analysis, highlighting the robustness and applicability of our CSK framework to higher-order modulation schemes.