When Does Spatial Correlation Add Value to Delayed Channel State Information?

Abstract: Fast fading wireless networks with delayed knowledge of the channel state information have received significant attention in recent years. An exception is networks where channels are spatially correlated. This paper characterizes the capacity region of two-user erasure interference channels with delayed knowledge of the channel state information and spatially correlated channels. There are instances where spatial correlation eliminates any potential gain from delayed channel state information and instances where it enables the same performance that is possible with instantaneous knowledge of channel state. The key is an extremal entropy inequality for spatially correlated channels that separates the two types of instances. It is also shown that to achieve the capacity region, each transmitter only needs to rely on the delayed knowledge of the channels to which it is connected.