Interference Networks With Random User Activity and Heterogeneous Delay Constraints

This paper proposes coding schemes and information-theoretic converse results for the transmission of heterogeneous delay-constrained traffic over interference networks with random user activity and random data arrivals. The heterogeneous delay-constrained traffic is composed of delay-tolerant traffic and delay-sensitive traffic where only the former can benefit from transmitter and receiver cooperation since the latter is subject to stringent delay constraints. Even for the delay-tolerant traffic, the total number of cooperation rounds at transmitter and receiver sides is limited to D rounds. Each transmitter is assumed to be active with probability ρ ∈ [0,1], and we study two different models for traffic arrival, each model reflecting a different application type. In Model 1, each active transmitter sends a delay-tolerant message, and with probability ρf ∈ [0,1] also transmits an additional delay-sensitive message; in Model 2, each active transmitter sends either a delay-sensitive message with probability ρf or a delay-tolerant message with probability 1-ρf. For both models, we derive inner and outer bounds on the fundamental per-user multiplexing gain (MG) region of the symmetric Wyner network as well as inner bounds on the fundamental MG region of the hexagonal model. The per-user MG of an interference network describes the logarithmic growth of the largest average per-user rate that can be achieved over the network at high signal-to-noise ratios (SNR). Our inner and outer bounds on the per-user MG are generally close and coincide in special cases. They also show that when both transmitters and receivers can cooperate, then under Model 1, transmitting delay-sensitive messages hardly causes any penalty on the sum per-user MG, and under Model 2, operating at large delay-sensitive per-user MGs incurs no penalty on the delay-tolerant per-user MG and thus even increases the sum per-user MG. However, when only receivers can cooperate, the maximum delay-tolerant per-user MG that our bounds achieve at maximum delay-sensitive per-user MG is significantly decreased.