Information Theory and Reliable Communication

It is now well known that employing channel adaptive signaling in wireless communication systems can yield large improvements in almost any performance metric. Unfortunately, many kinds of channel adaptive techniques have been deemed impractical in the past because of the problem of obtaining channel knowledge at the transmitter. The transmitter in many systems (such as those using frequency division duplexing) can not leverage techniques such as training to obtain channel state information. Over the last few years, research has repeatedly shown that allowing the receiver to send a small number of information bits about the channel conditions to the transmitter can allow near optimal channel adaptation. These practical systems, which are commonly referred to as limited or finite-rate feedback systems, supply benefits nearly identical to unrealizable perfect transmitter channel knowledge systems when they are judiciously designed. In this tutorial, we provide a broad look at the field of limited feedback wireless communications. We review work in systems using various combinations of single antenna, multiple antenna, narrowband, broadband, single-user, and multiuser technology. We also provide a synopsis of the role of limited feedback in the standardization of next generation wireless systems.

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An overview of limited feedback in wireless communication systems

In spite of the massive efforts in researching and developing mobile ad hoc networks in the last decade, this type of network has not yet witnessed mass market deployment. The low commercial penetration of products based on ad hoc networking technology could be explained by noting that the ongoing research is mainly focused on implementing military or specialized civilian applications. On the other hand, users are interested in general-purpose applications where high bandwidth and open access to the Internet are consolidated and cheap commodities. To turn mobile ad hoc networks into a commodity, we should move to more pragmatic "opportunistic ad hoc networking" in which multihop ad hoc networks are not isolated self-configured networks, but rather emerge as a flexible and low-cost extension of wired infrastructure networks coexisting with them. Indeed, a new class of networks is emerging from this view: mesh networks. This article provides an overview of mesh networking technology. In particular, starting from commercial case studies we describe the core building blocks and distinct features on which wireless mesh networks should be based. We provide a survey of the current state of the art in off-the-shelf and proprietary solutions to build wireless mesh networks. Finally, we address the challenges of designing a high-performance, scalable, and cost-effective wireless mesh network.

Mesh networks: commodity multihop ad hoc networks

The use of energy harvesting (EH) nodes as cooperative relays is a promising and emerging solution in wireless systems such as wireless sensor networks. It harnesses the spatial diversity of a multi-relay network and addresses the vexing problem of a relay's batteries getting drained in forwarding information to the destination. We consider a cooperative system in which EH nodes volunteer to serve as amplify-and-forward relays whenever they have sufficient energy for transmission. For a general class of stationary and ergodic EH processes, we introduce the notion of energy constrained and energy unconstrained relays and analytically characterize the symbol error rate of the system. Further insight is gained by an asymptotic analysis that considers the cases where the signal-to-noise-ratio or the number of relays is large. Our analysis quantifies how the energy usage at an EH relay and, consequently, its availability for relaying, depends not only on the relay's energy harvesting process, but also on its transmit power setting and the other relays in the system. The optimal static transmit power setting at the EH relays is also determined. Altogether, our results demonstrate how a system that uses EH relays differs in significant ways from one that uses conventional cooperative relays.

Voluntary Energy Harvesting Relays and Selection in Cooperative Wireless Networks

Multiuser diversity refers to a type of diversity present across different users in a fading environment. This diversity can be exploited by scheduling transmissions so that users transmit when their channel conditions are favorable. Using such an approach leads to a system capacity that increases with the number of users. However, such scheduling requires centralized control. In this paper, we consider a decentralized medium access control (MAC) protocol, where each user only has knowledge of its own channel gain. We consider a variation of the ALOHA protocol, channel-aware ALOHA; using this protocol we show that users can still exploit multiuser diversity gains. First we consider a backlogged model, where each user always has packets to send. In this case we show that the total system throughput increases at the same rate as in a system with a centralized scheduler. Asymptotically, the fraction of throughput lost due to the random access protocol is shown to be 1/e. We also consider a splitting algorithm, where the splitting sequence depends on the users' channel gains; this algorithm is shown to approach the throughput of an optimal centralized scheme. Next we consider a system with an infinite user population and random arrivals. In this case, it is proved that a variation of channel-aware ALOHA is stable for any total arrival rate in a memoryless channel, given that users can estimate the backlog. Extensions for channels with memory are also discussed.

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Exploiting multiuser diversity for medium access control in wireless networks

In this paper, we develop medium access control protocols to enable users in a wireless network to opportunistically transmit when they have favorable channel conditions, without requiring a centralized scheduler. We consider approaches that use splitting algorithms to resolve collisions over a sequence of minislots, and determine the user with the best channel. First, we present a basic algorithm for a system with i.i.d. block fading and a fixed number of backlogged users. We give an analysis of the throughput of this system and show that the average number of minislots required to find the user with the best channel is less than 2.5 independent of the number of users or the fading distribution. We then extend this algorithm to a channel with memory and also develop a reservation based scheme that offers improved performance as the channel memory increases. Finally we consider a model with random arrivals and propose a modified algorithm for this case. Simulation results are given to illustrate the performance in each of these settings

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Opportunistic splitting algorithms for wireless networks

In wireless fading channels, multiuser diversity can be exploited by scheduling users to transmit when their channel conditions are favorable. This leads to a sum throughput that increases with the number of users and, in certain cases, achieves capacity. However, such scheduling requires global knowledge of every user's channel gain, which may be difficult to obtain in some situations. This paper addresses contention-based protocols for exploiting multiuser diversity with only local channel knowledge. A variation of the ALOHA protocol is given in which users attempt to exploit multiuser diversity gains, but suffer contention losses due to the distributed channel knowledge. The growth rate of the sum throughput for this protocol is characterized in a backlogged system under both short-term and long-term average power constraints. A simple "fixed-rate" system is shown to be asymptotically optimal and to achieve the same growth rate as in a system with an optimal centralized scheduler. Moreover, asymptotically, the fraction of throughput lost due to contention is shown to be 1/e. Also, in a system with random arrivals and an infinite user population, a variation of this ALOHA protocol is shown to be stable for any total arrival rate, given that users can estimate the backlog.

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Distributed approaches for exploiting multiuser diversity in wireless networks

In this paper we develop distributed approaches for power allocation and scheduling in wireless access networks. We consider a model where users communicate over a set of parallel multi-access fading channels, as in an orthogonal frequency division multiple access (OFDMA) system. At each time, each user must decide which channels to transmit on and howto allocate its power over these channels. We give distributed power allocation and scheduling policies, where each user's actions depend only on knowledge of their own channel gains. Assuming a collision model for each channel, we characterize an optimal policy which maximizes the system throughput and also give a simpler sub-optimal policy. Both policies are shown to have the optimal scaling behavior in several asymptotic regimes.

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Distributed power allocation and scheduling for parallel channel wireless networks

In wireless networks, it is well established that the throughput can be increased by opportunistically scheduling transmissions to users that have good channel conditions. Several “opportunistic” medium access control protocols have been developed, which enable distributed users to opportunistically transmit without requiring a centralized scheduler. In this paper, we consider opportunistic splitting algorithms, where a sequence of mini-slots is used to determine the appropriate user to schedule at each time. In prior work, this type of algorithm has been developed for homogeneous systems in which all users have independent and identically distributed (i.i.d.) channel statistics. Here, we specify new splitting algorithms for a heterogeneous environment that may also include fairness constraints. The performance of the splitting algorithms are characterized via analysis and simulations. In particular, we show that in certain cases, a heterogeneous algorithm will perform at least as well as the homogeneous algorithm in a system with the same total number of users.

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Xiangping Qin

Papers

Exploiting multiuser diversity for medium access control in wireless networks

Opportunistic splitting algorithms for wireless networks

Distributed approaches for exploiting multiuser diversity in wireless networks

Distributed power allocation and scheduling for parallel channel wireless networks

Opportunistic Splitting Algorithms for Wireless Networks with Fairness Constraints