Is the PHY layer dead?
Open accessAbstract
This article originates from a panel with the above title, held at IEEE VTC Spring 2009, in which the authors took part. The enthusiastic response it received prompted us to discuss for a wider audience whether research at the physical layer (PHY) is still relevant to the field of wireless communications. Using cellular systems as the axis of our exposition, we exemplify areas where PHY research has indeed hit a performance wall and where any improvements are expected to be marginal. We then discuss whether the research directions taken in the past have always been the right choice and how lessons learned could influence future policy decisions. Several of the raised issues are subsequently discussed in greater details, e.g., the growing divergence between academia and industry. With this argumentation at hand, we identify areas that are either under-developed or likely to be of impact in coming years — hence corroborating the relevance and importance of PHY research.
The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.
Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.
Integrity signals
Registry
Cites
Statistics
Claims the paper makes
The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.
Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.
Claims other papers make about this one
Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?
5G contains no ground-breaking technology.
“Although 5G has adopted a gradual evolution strategy that is able to provide much more and better services than 4G, there is no ground-breaking technology in 5G.”
From What should 6G be? (2020) · cites this paper as [18]
5G inherits the fundamental performance enhancement mechanisms since 4G, and its performance gains are achieved through investment in more spectral and hardware resources.
“Instead, it inherits the fundamental performance enhancement mechanisms since 4G, and performance gains are achieved through an investment in more spectral and hardware resources [18].”
From What should 6G be? (2020) · cites this paper as [18]
We are squeezing the last lemon juice of Shannon's treatise published in 1948 and almost reach the hard wall set by information theory.
“As detailed in [18], we are squeezing the last lemon juice of Shannon's treatise published in 1948 and almost reach the hard wall set by information theory.”
From What should 6G be? (2020) · cites this paper as [18]
In the wireless communication research community, it is widely agreed that the most efficient ways to enhance wireless communication systems are to expand usage to high-frequency spectrum and to reduce the coverage of a single cell.
“In the wireless communication research community, it is widely agreed that the most efficient ways to enhance wireless communication systems are to expand the usage to highfrequency spectrum and to reduce the coverage of a single cell [18].”
From What should 6G be? (2020) · cites this paper as [18]
Self-check
Percentages, sums and reported differences re-computed from the paper’s own numbers.
The self-check needs the paper’s full text.
Cites
The capacity of wireless networks
Gupta, P., & Kumar, P. R. (2000) · IEEE Transactions on Information Theory · doi:10.1109/18.825799 · Cited by 8,192 · see citing works
Near Shannon limit error-correcting coding and decoding: Turbo-codes. 1
Berrou, C., Glavieux, A., & Thitimajshima, P. (2002) · International Conference on Communications · doi:10.1109/icc.1993.397441 · Cited by 6,754 · see citing works
Arıkan, E. (2009) · IEEE Transactions on Information Theory · doi:10.1109/tit.2009.2021379 · Cited by 4,470 · see citing works
Near Shannon limit error-correcting coding and decoding : Turbo-codes
Berrou, C. (1993) · International Conference on Communications · Cited by 4,264 · see citing works
Channel Coding Rate in the Finite Blocklength Regime
Polyanskiy, Y., Poor, H. V., & Verdú, S. (2010) · IEEE Transactions on Information Theory · doi:10.1109/tit.2010.2043769 · Cited by 3,837 · see citing works
Chandrasekhar, V., Andrews, J. G., & Gatherer, A. (2008) · IEEE Communications Magazine · doi:10.1109/mcom.2008.4623708 · Cited by 3,064 · see citing works
An overview of limited feedback in wireless communication systems
Love, D. J., Heath, R. W., Lau, V. K. N., et al. (2008) · IEEE Journal on Selected Areas in Communications · doi:10.1109/jsac.2008.081002 · Cited by 1,561 · see citing works
Self-citationKarakayali, M. K., Foschini, G. J., & Valenzuela, R. A. (2006) · IEEE Wireless Communications · doi:10.1109/mwc.2006.1678166 · Cited by 922 · see citing works
Self-citationDegrees of Freedom Region of the MIMO $X$ Channel
Jafar, S. A., & Shamai, S. S. (2008) · IEEE Transactions on Information Theory · doi:10.1109/tit.2007.911262 · Cited by 782 · see citing works
A cautionary perspective on cross-layer design
Kawadia, V., & Kumar, P. R. (2005) · IEEE Wireless Communications · doi:10.1109/mwc.2005.1404568 · Cited by 741 · see citing works
The trouble with physics: the rise of string theory, the fall of a science, and what comes next
(2007) · Choice Reviews Online · doi:10.5860/choice.44-5107 · Cited by 530 · see citing works
Area spectral efficiency of cellular mobile radio systems
Alouini, M., & Goldsmith, A. J. (1999) · IEEE Transactions on Vehicular Technology · doi:10.1109/25.775355 · Cited by 482 · see citing works
Döhler, M., & Li, Y. (2010) · Wiley eBooks · doi:10.1002/9780470740071 · Cited by 293 · see citing works
Reproducible research in signal processing
Vandewalle, P., Kovacevic, J., & Vetterli, M. (2009) · IEEE Signal Processing Magazine · doi:10.1109/msp.2009.932122 · Cited by 276 · see citing works
Wireless personal communications: what is it?
Cox, D. C. (1995) · IEEE Personal Communications · doi:10.1109/98.382529 · Cited by 227 · see citing works
Cooperative Communications: Hardware, Channel and PHY
Döhler, M., & Li, Y. (2010) · CERN Document Server (European Organization for Nuclear Research) · Cited by 221 · see citing works
Rethinking information theory for mobile ad hoc networks
Andrews, J. G., Shakkottai, S., Heath, R. W., et al. (2008) · IEEE Communications Magazine · doi:10.1109/mcom.2008.4689214 · Cited by 220 · see citing works
Self-citationTransmit diversity vs. spatial multiplexing in modern MIMO systems
Lozano, A., & Jindal, N. (2010) · IEEE Transactions on Wireless Communications · doi:10.1109/twc.2010.01.081381 · Cited by 220 · see citing works
Self-citationIn search of energy-efficient mobile networking
Pentikousis, K. (2010) · IEEE Communications Magazine · doi:10.1109/mcom.2010.5394036 · Cited by 135 · see citing works
Alrabadi, O. N., Papadias, C. B., Kalis, A., et al. (2009) · IEEE Transactions on Wireless Communications · doi:10.1109/twc.2009.080824 · Cited by 121 · see citing works
Self-citationRethinking MIMO for Wireless Networks: Linear Throughput Increases with Multiple Receive Antennas
Jindal, N., Andrews, J. G., & Weber, S. P. (2009) · International Conference on Communications · doi:10.1109/icc.2009.5199417 · Cited by 107 · see citing works
Docitive networks: an emerging paradigm for dynamic spectrum management [Dynamic Spectrum Management
Giupponi, L., Galindo‐Serrano, A., Blasco, P., et al. (2010) · IEEE Wireless Communications · doi:10.1109/mwc.2010.5547921 · Cited by 64 · see citing works
How far away is infinity? Using asymptotic analyses in multiple-antenna systems
Biglieri, E., Taricco, G., & Tulino, A. M. (2003) · IEEE International Symposium on Spread Spectrum Techniques and Applications (ISSSTA) · doi:10.1109/isssta.2002.1049273 · Cited by 44 · see citing works
Information theory: The copernican system of communications
Massey, J. (1984) · IEEE Communications Magazine · doi:10.1109/mcom.1984.1091871 · Cited by 31 · see citing works
Huang, H., & Valenzuela, R. A. (2006) · IEEE International Symposium on Personal, Indoor and Mobile Radio Communications (PIMRC) · doi:10.1109/pimrc.2005.1651419 · Cited by 25 · see citing works
Self-citationFundamental limitations on increasing data rate in wireless systems
Cox, D. C. (2008) · IEEE Communications Magazine · doi:10.1109/mcom.2008.4689199 · Cited by 21 · see citing works
Multiantenna capacity: myths and realities
Lozano, A., Tulino, A. M., & Verdú, S. (2001) · Cambridge University Press eBooks · doi:10.1017/cbo9780511616815.006 · Cited by 18 · see citing works
Self-citationLucky, R. W. (1993) · Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers eBooks · doi:10.1109/9780470545164 · Cited by 7 · see citing works
(2010) · Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers eBooks · doi:10.1109/9780470545164.ch53 · Cited by 4 · see citing works
Design and implementation series IV: Westheimer's Law
Moore, S. (2009) · IEEE Communications Magazine · doi:10.1109/mcom.2009.5307477 · Cited by 1 · see citing works
Spectral efficiency of cellular mobile radio systems
Babich, F., Taricco, G., & Vatta, F. (2001) · ArTS Archivio della ricerca di Trieste (University of Trieste https://www.units.it/) · Cited by 1 · see citing works
Flagged first, then by citations
Research works printed but not linked: 1
- M. K. Karakayali, G. J. Foschini, R. A. Valenzuela, "Network coordination for spectrally efficient communications in cellular systems," IEEE Wireless Communications, Vol. 13, Aug. 2006, pp. 56-61.
Cited by
Sorted by citations
Andrews, J. G., Buzzi, S., Choi, W., Hanly, S. V., Lozano, A., Soong, A. C. K., & Zhang, J. C. (2014) · IEEE Journal on Selected Areas in Communications · doi:10.1109/jsac.2014.2328098 · Cited by 8,106 · see citing works
Self-citationDang, S., Amin, O., Shihada, B., & Alouini, M.-S. (2020) · Nature Electronics · doi:10.1038/s41928-019-0355-6 · Cited by 1,790 · see citing works
- Authors
- Dohler, M., Heath, R. W., Lozano, A., Papadias, C. B., & Valenzuela, R. A.
- Affiliations
- Universitat Pompeu Fabra (ES)
- Venue
- IEEE Communications Magazine
- Published
- 2011-04
- Volume
- 49
- Issue
- 4
- Pages
- 159-165
- ISSN
- 0163-6804 (ISSN-L)
- OpenAlex
- W2148454256
- Cited by
- 221
- References
- 31
- Citations by year
- 2026: 1 · 2025: 8 · 2024: 9 · 2023: 3 · 2022: 5 · 2021: 6 · 2020: 15 · 2019: 11 · 2018: 36 · 2017: 15 · 2016: 8 · 2015: 17 · 2014: 25 · 2013: 22 · 2012: 30
- FWCI
- 19.46
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- green
- hdl.handle.net
- Locations
- IEEE Communications Magazine (publishedVersion)
- Hispana (acceptedVersion)
- Repositori digital de la UPF (Universitat Pompeu Fabra) (submittedVersion)
- RECERCAT (Consorci de Serveis Universitaris de Catalunya) (submittedVersion, other-oa)
- Funders
- University of Minnesota
- Athens University of Economics and Business
- University of Texas at Austin
- University of Southampton
- Technische Universität Dresden
- Universität Wien
- Technische Universität Wien
- National and Kapodistrian University of Athens
- Topics
- Physical Sciences › Engineering › Electrical and Electronic Engineering › Advanced Wireless Network Optimization
- Physical Sciences › Engineering › Electrical and Electronic Engineering › Advanced Wireless Communication Techniques
- Physical Sciences › Computer Science › Computer Networks and Communications › Wireless Communication Networks Research
- Keywords
- physical layer, wireless communication, cellular systems, performance bounds, industry-academia gap, science policy, future research directions
About these checks
Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.
Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.
Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.
What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›
Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review
