Bits through queues with feedback

TL;DR

This paper investigates when feedback can increase the capacity of queues with general service times, providing conditions based on service distribution and output entropy rate, extending classical results beyond exponential service times.

Contribution

It introduces new sufficient conditions for feedback to increase capacity and for it not to, applicable to various queue policies and service time distributions.

Findings

Feedback increases capacity under certain service distributions.

Feedback does not increase capacity for queues with bounded service times.

Conditions depend on service distribution and output entropy rate.

Abstract

In their $1996$ paper Anantharam and Verd\'u showed that feedback does not increase the capacity of a queue when the service time is exponentially distributed. Whether this conclusion holds for general service times has remained an open question which this paper addresses. Two main results are established for both the discrete-time and the continuous-time models. First, a sufficient condition on the service distribution for feedback to increase capacity under FIFO service policy. Underlying this condition is a notion of weak feedback wherein instead of the queue departure times the transmitter is informed about the instants when packets start to be served. Second, a condition in terms of output entropy rate under which feedback does not increase capacity. This condition is general in that it depends on the output entropy rate of the queue but explicitly depends neither on the queue policy nor on the service time distribution. This condition is satisfied, for instance, by queues with LCFS service policies and bounded service times.