First, radio signals experience signi_cant attenuation, called path-

loss, as well as self-interference, called fading, induced by multipath

propagation through
a lossy medium. Generally speaking, these channel distortions require
increasing power,
bandwidth, and receiver complexity to reliably communicate over longer
distances. At
the same time, radios in a wireless network share a common transmission
medium,eg a fixed amount of wireless spectrum; thus, radio signals are
subject to interference from
other users in the system as well as from other wireless systems operating in
the same spectrum

As a result of this rich channel environment, wireless system designers are

presented with
many challenges. These include, for example: reliably transmitting
information among radio
terminals; mitigating severe channel impairments such as multipath fading
and interference
from other users; e_ciently allocating and utilizing resources such as power
and bandwidth;
scaling algorithms as the number of terminals in the network grows; and
supporting a large
and ever-growing number of applications, such as voice, data, and
multimedia networking.