A (Very) Brief Survey on Optimization Methods for Wireless Communication Systems

Wireless data usage is growing now faster than ever before. In order to attend the increasing demand for wireless services and considering that frequency spectrum is a scarce and expensive resource, wireless are required to operate as efficiently as possible. In this context, the application of mathematical optimization methods in the study and design of key functionalities of wireless systems has acquired great relevance. This papers surveys some applications of optimization methods to wireless communications problems. Among them, game theory and majorization theory have got increasing attention in the last few years and are described in some more details. An application of optimization methods to solve a concrete problem in modern wireless communications, namely, the maximization of the ergodic capacity of a Coordinated Multi-Point system with statistical Channel State Information at the Transmitter is also provided