Exploiting channel memory for multi-user wireless scheduling without channel measurement: Capacity regions and algorithms

We study the fundamental network capacity of a multi-user wireless downlink under two assumptions: (1) Channels are not explicitly measured and thus instantaneous states are unknown, (2) Channels are modeled as ON/OFF Markov chains. This is an important network model to explore because channel probing may be costly or infeasible in some contexts. In this case, we can use channel memory with ACK/NACK feedback from previous transmissions to improve network throughput. Computing in closed form the capacity region of this network is difficult because it involves solving a high dimension partially observed Markov decision problem. Instead, in this paper we construct an inner and outer bound on the capacity region, showing that the bound is tight when the number of users is large and the traffic is symmetric. For the case of heterogeneous traffic and any number of users, we propose a simple queue-dependent policy that can stabilize the network with any data rates strictly within the inner capacity bound. The stability analysis uses a novel frame-based Lyapunov drift argument. The outer-bound analysis uses stochastic coupling and state aggregation to bound the performance of a restless bandit problem using a related multi-armed bandit system. Our results are useful in cognitive radio networks, opportunistic scheduling with delayed/uncertain channel state information, and restless bandit problems.