Relativistic control theory and the dynamic control of communication networks

The purpose of this paper is to discuss, in an informal manner, some of the very interesting problems that arise when one examines decision strategies in dynamic communication networks. The study of such systems leads to natural decentralized control strategies associated with stochastic control problems with nonclassical information structure. Since this nonclassical information pattern is a consequence of the physical limitations on the speed of information transfer, we call this class of problems relativistic stochastic control problems.