MIT Electrical Engineering and Computer Science EECS Event

Multiuser Diversity in Wireless Networks: From Information Theory to Architecture

David Tse
U.C. Berkeley, EECS, Visiting MIT, EECS

Monday, November 13, 2000
4:00 PM (refreshments 3:45)
Edgerton Hall, Room 34-101
EECS Colloquium

Abstract

A central feature of mobile wireless networks is the random fading of the channel strengths of the underlying communication links. Channel fading has traditionally been viewed as a form of unreliability that has to be compensated for. In this talk, we argue a different point of view, that channel fading is a form of randomization that can be taken advantage of in the design of wireless networks. This viewpoint is particularly relevant in a network with multiple users, each having independent fading channels.

We first motivate this notion of multiuser diversity from information theoretic considerations. We then discuss how this concept is used in the design of a downlink packet scheduling algorithm for Qualcomm's HDR wireless data system. Finally, we show how the idea of multiuser diversity can be used to greatly increase the throughput of mobile ad-hoc networks for delay tolerant applications.