Communications in Information and Systems

Volume 2 (2002)

Number 2

On the transport capacity of a broadcast Gaussian channel

Pages: 183 – 216

DOI: https://dx.doi.org/10.4310/CIS.2002.v2.n2.a5

Authors

Alex Reznik (Department of Electrical Engineering, Princeton University, Princeton, New Jersey, U.S.A.; InterDigital Communications Corp., King of Prussia, Pennsylvania, U.S.A.)

Sergio Verdú (Department of Electrical Engineering, Princeton University, Princeton, New Jersey, U.S.A.)

Abstract

The main question addressed in this paper is the problem of maximizing the “transport capacity” of a broadcast network in a Gaussian power-law channel, where by transport capacity we mean a generalization of the bandwidth-distance product as a means of assigning value to the information delivered by a communication network. This problem arises in areas such as cellular network coverage and ad-hoc network design, where the distance or area covered by a transmission is a critical consideration in the system design process.

In the process of addressing this issue we also derive a transport-capacity maximizing resource allocation scheme for a general set of reward and channel penalty functions. The behavior of transport capacity for a very large network of receivers in a Gaussian power-law channel is also examined and a “large-scale” view of the optimal power allocation scheme for a given distance-payoff function is provided.

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Published 1 January 2002