Fundamental Performance Limits in Cross-layer Wireless Optimization: Throughput, Delay, and Energy

In recent years, one of the most significant developments in both the theory and practice of communication and networking has been the closer coupling between the design of physical-layer functionalities such as coding and modulation, and the design of higher-layer functionalities such as contention resolution and scheduling. This closer coupling is characteristic of the cross-layer paradigm. It is the objective of the present survey to spell out some of the basic challenges, key communication settings, and crucial results, relevant to cross-layer analysis and design for wireless systems. This work focuses primarily on communication settings relevant to wireless cellular communications, where cross-layer design principles have arguably had the greatest impact on practical systems. In order to explore the fundamental performance limits of wireless systems operating under the cross-layer paradigm, the survey shows how information theory and network theory can be leveraged to study issues such as channel modeling, coding, source burstiness, throughput, delay, multi-user Full text available at: http://dx.doi.org/10.1561/0100000014