WNCG Seminar: Interactive Communications

Information theory can characterize one-way, non-interactive communication, where one source sends a message to one destination, very well. When the communication is interactive, as in (1) channels with feedback, or (2) two-way channels where two users exchange messages over a shared channel, much less is understood. We outline what is understood about interactive communications as in (1) and (2) from an information theoretic perspective, and why they are so challenging to characterize. Many open problems and connections to related fields will be presented.