Asymptotic Capacity of Large Relay Networks with Conferencing Links

In this correspondence, we consider a half-duplex large relay network, which consists of one source-destination pair and $N$ relay nodes, each of which is connected with a subset of the other relays via signal-to-noise ratio (SNR)-limited out-of-band conferencing links. The asymptotic achievable rates of two basic relaying schemes with the "$p$-portion" conferencing strategy are studied: For the decode-and-forward (DF) scheme, we prove that the DF rate scales as $\mathcal{O} (\log (N))$; for the amplify-and-forward (AF) scheme, we prove that it asymptotically achieves the capacity upper bound in some interesting scenarios as $N$ goes to infinity.Comment: submitted to IEEE Transactions on Communication

Asymptotic Capacity of Large Fading Relay Networks with Random Node Failures

To understand the network response to large-scale physical attacks, we investigate the asymptotic capacity of a half-duplex fading relay network with random node failures when the number of relays $N$ is infinitely large. In this paper, a simplified independent attack model is assumed where each relay node fails with a certain probability. The noncoherent relaying scheme is considered, which corresponds to the case of zero forward-link channel state information (CSI) at the relays. Accordingly, the whole relay network can be shown equivalent to a Rayleigh fading channel, where we derive the $\epsilon$-outage capacity upper bound according to the multiple access (MAC) cut-set, and the $\epsilon$-outage achievable rates for both the amplify-and-forward (AF) and decode-and-forward (DF) strategies. Furthermore, we show that the DF strategy is asymptotically optimal as the outage probability $\epsilon$ goes to zero, with the AF strategy strictly suboptimal over all signal to noise ratio (SNR) regimes. Regarding the rate loss due to random attacks, the AF strategy suffers a less portion of rate loss than the DF strategy in the high SNR regime, while the DF strategy demonstrates more robust performance in the low SNR regime.Comment: 24 pages, 5 figures, submitted to IEEE Transactions on Communication

China’s Healthcare Reform And Resources Redistribution: Lessons For Emerging Nations

Following China’s recent economic growth and healthcare reform, medical services quickly merged into the market economy. The burden of healthcare expense on the Chinese people has become a serious political issue. This research project reviews the changes in health expenditures made during the last two decades. This paper explores the cause of this rapid change in the healthcare sector and analyzes the corresponding statistics during the entire economic reform period. In addition, the paper articulates that the lack of healthcare coverage existed even before the healthcare reform formally started. As a direct result of this reform, medical resources were quickly concentrated in urban hospitals and the individual out-of¬pocket expense as the share of total health expenditures sharply increased. Recommendations are made for further healthcare reform.Healthcare, Economic transition, Redistribution, China

A Survey on Delay-Aware Resource Control for Wireless Systems --- Large Deviation Theory, Stochastic Lyapunov Drift and Distributed Stochastic Learning

In this tutorial paper, a comprehensive survey is given on several major systematic approaches in dealing with delay-aware control problems, namely the equivalent rate constraint approach, the Lyapunov stability drift approach and the approximate Markov Decision Process (MDP) approach using stochastic learning. These approaches essentially embrace most of the existing literature regarding delay-aware resource control in wireless systems. They have their relative pros and cons in terms of performance, complexity and implementation issues. For each of the approaches, the problem setup, the general solution and the design methodology are discussed. Applications of these approaches to delay-aware resource allocation are illustrated with examples in single-hop wireless networks. Furthermore, recent results regarding delay-aware multi-hop routing designs in general multi-hop networks are elaborated. Finally, the delay performance of the various approaches are compared through simulations using an example of the uplink OFDMA systems.Comment: 58 pages, 8 figures; IEEE Transactions on Information Theory, 201