References & Further Reading

References

1. T. M. Cover and J. A. Thomas, Elements of Information Theory, Wiley, 2nd ed., 2006

   Chapter 15 covers the multiple access channel. The presentation is rigorous and self-contained, with the capacity region theorem stated and proven in full. The binary adder MAC example is used throughout.

2. A. El Gamal and Y.-H. Kim, Network Information Theory, Cambridge University Press, 2011

   Chapter 4 is the most complete treatment of the MAC. Covers the general DM-MAC, Gaussian MAC, and MIMO MAC with full proofs. The polymatroidal structure and connections to linear programming are developed carefully.

3. D. Tse and P. Viswanath, Fundamentals of Wireless Communications, Cambridge University Press, 2005

   Chapters 6 and 10 present the MAC from a wireless communications perspective. Excellent treatment of the fading MAC, opportunistic scheduling, and multiuser diversity. The MIMO MAC capacity region is developed with practical motivation.

4. R. Ahlswede, Multi-way communication channels, 1971

   One of the two independent proofs of the MAC capacity region. Ahlswede's approach uses combinatorial methods.

5. H. H. J. Liao, Multiple access channels, PhD thesis, University of Hawaii, 1972

   The other independent proof of the MAC capacity region, using random coding and joint typicality.

6. R. Knopp and P. A. Humblet, Information capacity and power control in single-cell multiuser communications, 1995

   The foundational paper on opportunistic scheduling for the fading MAC. Shows that transmitting only to the best user at each time is sum-rate optimal with CSIT, launching the field of opportunistic communications.

7. P. Viswanath, D. N. C. Tse, and R. Laroia, Opportunistic beamforming using dumb antennas, 2002

   Extends multiuser diversity to systems with multiple antennas. Shows that random beamforming can induce channel fluctuations and exploit multiuser diversity even when the channels are nearly deterministic.

8. Y. Polyanskiy, A perspective on massive random access, 2017

   Introduces the unsourced MAC model for massive random access, where the decoder recovers the set of transmitted messages without user identification. A paradigm shift for IoT communications.

9. K.-H. Ngo, A. Lancho, G. Durisi, and G. Caire, Unsourced multiple access with random user activity, 2022

   CommIT group contribution on coded random access for the unsourced MAC with random user activity. Achieves near-optimal energy efficiency.

10. W. Yu, W. Rhee, S. Boyd, and J. M. Cioffi, Iterative water-filling for Gaussian vector multiple-access channels, 2004

    Develops the iterative water-filling algorithm for computing the MIMO MAC sum capacity. Proves convergence to the global optimum.

Further Reading

• Network information theory

  A. El Gamal and Y.-H. Kim, Network Information Theory (Cambridge, 2011), Chapters 4-8

  The definitive reference for multiuser information theory. After the MAC (Ch. 4), the book covers the broadcast channel (Ch. 5), interference channel (Ch. 6), relay channel (Ch. 7), and multi-hop networks (Ch. 8).

• Multiuser detection

  S. Verdu, Multiuser Detection (Cambridge, 1998)

  The classic reference on practical decoding algorithms for the MAC, including optimal, decorrelating, MMSE, and SIC detectors. Bridges the gap between information-theoretic limits and practical receivers.

• NOMA for 5G and beyond

  Z. Ding et al., 'A survey on non-orthogonal multiple access for 5G networks,' IEEE JSAC, 2017

  Comprehensive survey of NOMA techniques, connecting the MAC capacity region theory to practical system designs for 5G. Covers power-domain NOMA, code-domain NOMA, and their performance analysis.

• Massive random access

  Y. Polyanskiy, 'A perspective on massive random access,' ISIT 2017

  The paper that launched the modern study of massive random access. Introduces the unsourced MAC model and energy-per-bit fundamental limits for IoT-scale systems.

• MIMO MAC and uplink beamforming

  D. Tse and P. Viswanath, Fundamentals of Wireless Communications (Cambridge, 2005), Chapter 10

  Develops the MIMO MAC capacity region with practical motivation from uplink multi-user MIMO. Includes the duality between MAC and BC.

• Polymatroid theory and submodular optimization

  S. Fujishige, Submodular Functions and Optimization (Elsevier, 2005)

  For readers interested in the combinatorial structure of the MAC capacity region. The polymatroidal characterization connects to greedy algorithms and Edmond's intersection theorem.