Recently, there has been a surge in research activities that utilize the power of recent developments in nonlinear
optimization to tackle a wide scope of work in the analysis and design of communication systems, touching every
layer of the layered network architecture, and resulting in both intellectual and practical impacts significantly
beyond the earlier frameworks. These research activities are driven by both new demands in the areas of
communications and networking, and new tools emerging from optimization theory. Such tools include new
developments of powerful theories and highly efficient computational algorithms for nonlinear convex
optimization, as well as global solution methods and relaxation techniques for nonconvex optimization.
Optimization theory can be used to analyze, interpret, or design a communication system, for both forward-engineering and reverse-engineering. Over the last few years, it has been successfully applied to a wide range of
communication systems, from the high speed Internet core to wireless networks, from coding and equalization to
broadband access, and from information theory to network topology models. Some of the theoretical advances
have also been put into practice and started making visible impacts, including new versions of TCP congestion
control, power control and scheduling algorithms in wireless networks, and spectrum management in DSL
broadband access networks.
Under the theme of optimization and control of communication networks, this Hot Topic Session consists of five
invited talks covering a wide range of issues, including protocols, pricing, resource allocation, cross layer design,
traffic engineering in the Internet, optical transport networks, and wireless networks