while DNA as a storage medium has fundamental differences from traditional storage, many of the data transformations and error processing considerations for DNA data storage have analogies to transmitting data through “traditional” network/storage electrical channels pos quote 5

While a wide variety of preservation methods are common in biotechnology broadly, DNA used for data storage is typically stored dry and in a chemically inert environment to increase storage density and stability.

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Synthesis DNA synthesis has historically been implemented with large machines, using hoses, valves, and plastic containers known in the life sciences as well plates. Hoses and valves will not disappear; however, advances in the semiconductor industry have enabled silicon technology-based implementations that miniaturize the synthesis device and can achieve higher write throughput by synthesizing more sequences in parallel (thousands in well plates versus billions on chips). For example, chips akin to static RAM arrays have been used to synthesize sequences of DNA, one sequence per array position8 (Figure 6)

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Thus, like in traditional networking, where bitstreams must be broken into smaller pieces to fit limited-size packets, DNA data storage requires breaking data objects into many segments during encoding to fit limited-size strands.

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The DNA channel layer roughly incorporates the functionality of the transport through the data link layer in the OSI model.

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