Fundamental Limits of Cache-Aided Wireless BC: Interplay of Coded-Caching and CSIT Feedback

Building on the recent coded-caching breakthrough by Maddah-Ali and Niesen, the work here considers the K-user cache-aided wireless multi-antenna symmetric broadcast channel with random fading and imperfect feedback, and analyzes the throughput performance as a function of feedback statistics and cache size. In this setting, this paper identifies the optimal cache-aided degrees-of-freedom (DoF) within a factor of 4, by identifying near-optimal schemes that exploit a new synergy between coded caching and delayed CSIT, as well as by exploiting the unexplored interplay between caching and feedback-quality. The DoF expressions reveal an initial gain due to current CSIT, and an additional gain due to coded caching, which is exponential in the sense that any linear decrease in the required DoF performance, allows for an exponential reduction in the required cache size. In the end, this paper reveals three new aspects of caching: a synergy between memory and delayed feedback, a tradeoff between memory and current CSIT, and a powerful ability to provide cache-aided feedback savings.