The temporal value of information to network protocols ? An analytical framework

Network protocol performance is closely related to the available information about the network state. However, acquiring such information expends network bandwidth resource. Thus a trade-off exists between the amount of information collected about the network state, and the improved protocol performance due to this information. A framework has been developed to study the optimal trade-off between the amount of collected information and network performance. However, the effect of information delay is not considered. In this paper, we extend the framework to study the impact of information delay on the value of network state information to network protocols, based on which optimal periodic information update policies could be obtained. The framework is illustrated by an example of multiuser scheduling, and observations about the impact of information delay on network protocols are obtained.