Abstract

Most of the recent advances in the design of high-speed wireless systems are based on information-theoretic principles that demonstrate how to efficiently transmit long data packets. However, the upcoming 5G wireless systems will need to support novel traffic types that use short packets. For example, short packets represent the most common form of traffic generated by sensors and other devices involved in machine-to-machine communications. Furthermore, there are emerging applications in which small packets are expected to carry critical information that should be received with low latency and ultra-high reliability. In this talk, I explain how finite-blocklength information theory can be used to characterize the tradeoff between diversity, multiplexing, and channel-estimation overhead in short-packet wireless communications.