The Broadcast Approach in Communication Networks
Ali Tajer, Avi Steiner, Shlomo Shamai (Shitz)
Abstract
In this paper we review 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 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.