From Shannon to 5G: Theory and Practice of Cooperative Wireless Networking

How will information theory impact 5G wireless networking? This talk addresses the question in the context of cooperative communications. During the past 45 years, information theory literature has provided a wide range of fundamental results establishing benefits of cooperation in various wireless scenarios. The impending 5G wireless revolution provides the perfect setting for reaping the potential gains of cooperation: Large number of antennas and wide bandwidth, as in millimeter wave systems, provide abundant degrees of freedom; cloud computing and cheap storage enable enhanced computing capabilities at the network edge; full-duplex radio designs allow nodes to transcend traditional duplexing limitations; and applications such as Internet of Things provide a natural setting for cooperative communication and compression. This talk provides a brief overview of the information theoretic foundations of cooperative communications along with a few examples of how even simple forms of cooperation could make big impact in 5G wireless networks.
Elza Erkip is a Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering with New York University Tandon School of Engineering. She is a Fellow of the IEEE, a member of the Science Academy Society of Turkey and is among the 2014 and 2015 Thomson Reuters Highly Cited Researchers. She received the NSF CAREER award in 2001 and the IEEE Communications Society WICE Outstanding Achievement Award in 2016. Her paper awards include the 2004 IEEE Communications Society Stephen O. Rice Paper Prize and the 2013 IEEE Communications Society Award for Advances in Communication. She has been a member of the Board of Governors of the IEEE Information Theory Society since 2012 where she is currently the Second Vice President. She was a Distinguished Lecturer of the IEEE Information Theory Society from 2013 to 2014.