Theory and Applications in Multiuser/Multiterminal Communications

Call for Papers

After fifty years of development in information theory, much is known for point-to-point communicationsystems; the source-channel separation theorem generally allows for decoupled datacompression and channel coding, and practical codes and designs are now able to come extremelyclose to the Shannon limit. However, practical communications systems (especially in wirelessscenarios) often involve multiple users, either for the sake of better utilization of limited resources,or due to nonideal effects of real systems. Multiuser settings substantially change the picture ofinformation theory study; for example, it is known that source-channel separation does not alwayshold, and that feedback can strictly increase capacity in some settings. There has been intensiveresearch very recently on relay and broadcast channels, and some important results have been obtained.However, most problems in multiuser information theory still remain open, and even lessis understood about efficient designs in real applications.

Things become even more interesting and challenging when distributed nodes and terminals in awireless ad hoc or sensor network are viewed as “users.” First, new characteristics and performancemetrics emerge that are largely ignored in information and communication theory, including sourceburstiness, network throughput, delay, fairness, and other application-specific considerations. Across-layer approach in analysis and design is both desireable and promising. Second, many existingnetwork designs are based on heuristics or inadequate principles, so reverse engineering canlead to better designs, facilitate cross-fertilization among relevant fields such as computing, networking,control and communications, and foster understanding of the interconnection betweeninformation theory and communication networks.

This special issue aims to present current state of the art and new development in theory, design,and relevant applications concerning multiuser/multiterminal communications. Research papers,expository papers, and surveys are all welcome.

Topics of interest include, but are not limited to:

  • Multiuser information theory
  • Information theory with queuing and delay
  • Distributed source coding
  • Joint source/channel coding
  • Network coding
  • Distributed and cooperative processing in wireless networks
  • System performance analysis and fundamental tradeoffs, both theoretical and numerical
  • Efficient design and resource management, interference management, multiuser detection
  • Cross-layer design and analysis
  • Relevant applications in ad hoc and sensor networks.

Authors should follow the EURASIP Journal on Wireless Communications and Networking manuscript format described at the journal site http://www.hindawi.com/journals/wcn/. Prospective authors should submit an electronic copy of their complete manuscript through the EURASIP Journal on Wireless Communications and Networking's Manuscript Tracking System at http://mts.hindawi.com/, according to the following timetable.

Manuscript DueAugust 1, 2007
First Round of ReviewsNovember 1, 2007
Publication DateFebruary 1, 2008

Guest Editors:

  • Huaiyu Dai, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC 27695-7911, USA
  • Michael Gastpar, Electrical Engineering and Computer Science Department, University of California at Berkeley, 265 Cory Hall Berkeley, CA 94720-1770, USA
  • Nihar Jindal, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Minnesota, 200 Union Street SE, Minneapolis, MN 55455, USA
  • Liang-Liang Xie, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Waterloo, 200 University Avenue West Waterloo, Ontario, Canada, N2L 3G1