  This paper introduces a novel optically controllable molecular communication
(MC) transmitter (TX) design, which is based on a vesicular nanodevice (ND)
functionalized for the release of signaling molecules via transmembrane
proteins. Due to its optical-to-chemical conversion capability, the ND can be
used as an externally controllable TX for several MC applications such as bit
transmission and targeted drug delivery. The proposed TX design comprises two
cooperating modules, an energizing module and a release module, and depending
on the specific choices for the modules allows for the release of different
types of signaling molecules. After setting up a general system model for the
proposed TX design, we conduct a detailed mathematical analysis of a specific
realization. In particular, we derive an exact analytical and an approximate
closed-form solution for the concentration of the released signaling molecules
and validate our results by comparison with a numerical solution. Moreover, we
consider the impact of a buffering medium, which is typically present in
experimental and application environments, in both our analytical and numerical
analyses to evaluate the feasibility of our proposed TX design for practical
chemical implementation. The proposed analytical and closed-form models
facilitate system parameter optimization, which can accelerate the experimental
development cycle of the proposed ND architecture in the future.
