Today's heterogeneous networks comprised of mostly macro cells and indoor small cells will not be able to meet the upcoming traffic demands. Indeed, it is forecasted that at least a 100x network capacity increase will be required to meet the traffic demands in 2020.

The increasing demand for ubiquitous, high-speed and high-performance Internet access challenges the economic viability of mobile network operators which cannot cope with the rate of increase of wireless traffic. Alternate means are considered to deal with the excessive traffic demand that exploit the increase of wireless networks in unlicensed parts of the spectrum, as well as of handheld devices with multiple radio interfaces.

Due to the surging increase in data traffic demand, operators try to enhance the coverage and network capacity by intensive spatial reuse. The limiting factor in networks with high spatial reuse is aggregate network interference, which depends strongly on the locations of the interferers.

The standard interference functions introduced by Yates have been very influential on the analysis and design of distributed power control laws. While powerful and versatile, the framework has some drawbacks: the existence of fixed-points has to be established separately, and no guarantees are given on the rate of convergence of the iterates.

Understanding complex physical systems requires knowledge of the interactions among their constituents, in order to be able to predict emergent behaviors (i.e., of the system as a whole).

In the last decade, cellular networks are undergoing with a radical change in their basic design foundations. The huge increase in traffic demand requires a novel design of future cellular networks.

Mixing time is a global property of a network that indicates how fast a random walk gains independence from its starting point. Mixing time is an essential parameter for many distributed algorithms, but especially those based on gossip.

El 6 de Noviembre de 2015 el Instituto IMDEA Materiales será el anfitrión de la I Conferencia IMDEA, Ciencia, Empresa y Sociedad, inaugurada por la presidenta de la Comunidad de Madrid, Dª Cristina Cifuentes y por la Secretaria de Estado de Investigación, Desarrollo e Innovación, Dª Carmen Vela.

Technology now offers the possibility of delivering a vast range of low-cost people-centric services to citizens. Internet of Things (IoT) supporting technologies are becoming robust, viable and cheaper.

Several challenges persist in what concerns wireless sensor networks, the Internet of Things, and the use of these technologies in human-centric environments.