The Broadcast Approach in Communication Networks

Ali Tajer; Avi Steiner; Shlomo Shamai

doi:10.3390/e23010120

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arXiv · 2101.07173

The Broadcast Approach in Communication Networks

Ali Tajer·Avi Steiner·Shlomo Shamai

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Abstract

This paper reviews the theoretical and practical principles of the broadcast approach to communication over state-dependent channels and networks in which the transmitters have access to only the probabilistic description of the time-varying states while remaining oblivious to their instantaneous realizations. When the temporal variations are frequent enough, an effective long-term strategy is adapting the transmission strategies to the system's ergodic behavior. However, when the variations are infrequent, their temporal average can deviate significantly from the channel's ergodic mode, rendering a lack of instantaneous performance guarantees. To circumvent a lack of short-term guarantees, the {\em broadcast approach} provides principles for designing transmission schemes that benefit from both short- and long-term performance guarantees. This paper provides an overview of how to apply the broadcast approach to various channels and network models under various operational constraints.

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Ali Tajer, Avi Steiner, Shlomo Shamai. 2021-01-18. The Broadcast Approach in Communication Networks. https://doi.org/10.3390/e23010120

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