Layering As Optimization Decomposition: Framework and Examples

Network protocols in layered architectures have historically been obtained primarily on an ad-hoc basis. Recent research has shown that network protocols may instead be holistically analyzed and systematically designed as distributed solutions to some global optimization problems in the form of Network Utility Maximization (NUM), providing insight into what they optimize and structures of the network protocol stack. This paper presents a short survey of the recent efforts towards a systematic understanding of 'layering' as 'optimization decomposition', where the overall communication network is modeled by a generalized NUM problem, each layer corresponds to a decomposed subproblem, and the interfaces among layers are quantified as functions of the optimization variables coordinating the sub-problems. Different decompositions lead to alternative layering architectures. We summarize several examples of horizontal decomposition into distributed computation and vertical decomposition into functional modules such as congestion control, routing, scheduling, random access, power control, and coding.