Once upon a time, cellular wireless networks provided two basic services: voice
telephony and low-rate text messaging. Users in the network were separated
by orthogonal multiple access schemes, and cells by generous frequency reuse
patterns [1]. Since then, the proliferation of wireless services, fierce competition,
andthe emergenceof new service classes such as wireless data and multimediahave
resulted in an ever increasing pressure on network operators to use resources in a
moreefficient manner.In the contextof wireless networks,two of the most common
resources are power and spectrum—and, due to regulations, these resources are
typically scarce. Hence, in contrast to wired networks, overprovisioning is not
feasible in wireless networks.
