This talk gives an overview of the FLoWS (Fundamental Limits of Wireless Systems) 
project, part of a new 5 year DARPA program to advance Information Theory for 
Mobile Ad Hoc Networks (ITMANET). Our research in FLowS is based on the following 
thrust areas:

- Generalized MANET capacity region bounds and scaling laws 
- Novel methods for node cooperation and coding
- Network coding and forwarding
- Source coding, separation, and joint source/channel/network coding
- Dynamic resource allocation across all degrees of freedom 
- Utility optimization for network capacity and end-to-end performance metrics

Our approach integrates traditional information theory, network coding, optimization,
control, and network theory in a natural fashion. We believe that it is through such
an integrated approach to information theory that a principled characterization of the
fundamental limits of MANET performance can be established. The talk will give an 
overview of our proposed research, discuss the models, degrees of freedom, constraints,
and parameterizations we will consider in our capacity analysis, and perhaps open a 
dialog and debate among the Information Theory community about the best (and worst) ways 
to formulate and attack this broad challenge problem. 

Co-PIs on the project are Stephen Boyd, Todd Coleman, Michelle Effros, Ramesh Johari, 
Ralf Koetter, Muriel Medard, Sean Meyn, Pierre Moulin, Asuman Ozdaglar, Devavrat Shah, 
and Lizhong Zheng