ABSTRACT: The interaction between queueing and information theory is an important one in bringing information-theoretic principles into networking. In this talk, we highlight some new results in this area, with an emphasis on wireless systems. The first set of results consider the issue of coding in queues, in particular in the context of network coding. Coding in this context blurs the traditional delineation among packets, but it allows for considerable benefits for delay. In particular, we show that coding can lead speeding up of downloads in networks, with implications for reducing delay in elastic traffic and for increasing the number of supported users with inelastic traffic. A concern in coding across packets is the possibility that queue size may be negatively impacted by needing to maintain packets involved in current coding schemes. If we allow feedback, which consists of a description of the degrees of freedom at the receivers, coding can be used to manage the size of queues. Another concern when we consider dynamic coding is that of decoding delays. We show that such delays can be managed by adapting the coding judiciously to the feedback. Moreover, the trade-off between delay and rate can be tuned through the choice of adaptation.

SPEAKER: Muriel Médard is a Professor in the Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at MIT. She was previously an Assistant Professor in the Electrical and Computer Engineering Department and a member of the Coordinated Science Laboratory at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. From 1995 to 1998, she was a Staff Member at MIT Lincoln Laboratory in the Optical Communications and the Advanced Networking Groups. Professor Médard received B.S. degrees in EECS and in Mathematics in 1989, a B.S. degree in Humanities in 1990, a M.S. degree in EE 1991, and a Sc D. degree in EE in 1995, all from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Cambridge. She has served as an editor of several IEEE journals. IEEE Leon K. Kirchmayer Prize Paper Award 2002, the Best Paper Award at the Fourth International Workshop on the Design of Reliable Communication Networks (DRCN 2003), the Information Theory Society/ Communications Society Joint Best Paper Award 2009 and the William R. Bennett Prize in the Field of Communications Networking 2009. She received a NSF Career Award in 2001 and was co-winner of the MIT 2004 Harold E. Edgerton Faculty Achievement Award.  She was named a 2007 Gilbreth Lecturer by the National Academy of Engineering. Professor Médard is a member of the Board of Governors of the IEEE Information Theory Society and a Fellow of IEEE. She is Chief Scientist at Blackwave.