Autocorrelation and Coherence Time of Interference in Poisson Networks

This article takes an analytical approach to investigate the temporal dynamics of interference in wireless networks. We propose a framework to calculate the autocorrelation of interference in Poisson networks and derive closed-form expressions for the case of Nakagami fading. The framework takes three correlation sources into account: the location of interferers, the wireless channel, and the data traffic. We introduce the interference coherence time-in analogy to the well-established channel coherence time-and show how its basic qualitative behavior depends on the source of correlation. The insights gained can be useful in the design of medium access control and retransmission protocols.