Age of Information

Book excerpt: At the forefront of cutting-edge technologies, this text provides a comprehensive treatment of a crucial network performance metric, ushering in new opportunities for rethinking the whole design of communication systems. Detailed exposition of the communication and network theoretic foundations of Age of Information (AoI) gives the reader a solid background, and discussion of the implications on signal processing and control theory shed light on the important potential of recent research. The text includes extensive real-world applications of this vital metric, including caching, the Internet of Things (IoT), and energy harvesting networks. The far-reaching applications of AoI include networked monitoring systems, cyber-physical systems such as the IoT, and information-oriented systems and data analytics applications ranging from the stock market to social networks. The future of this exciting subject in 5G communication systems and beyond make this a vital resource for graduate students, researchers and professionals.