Dohler, MischaHeath, R. W., Jr.Lozano Solsona, AngelPapadias, Constantinos B.Valenzuela, R. A.2011-11-112011-11-112011Dohler M, Heath Jr R W, Lozano A, Papadias C B, Valenzuela R A. Is the PHY layer dead?. IEEE Communications Magazine. 2011; 49(4): 159-165. DOI 10.1109/MCOM.2011.57411600163-6804http://hdl.handle.net/10230/13026This article originates from a panel with the above title, held at IEEE VTC Spring 2009, in which the authors took part. The enthusiastic response it received prompted us to discuss for a wider audience whether research at the physical layer (PHY) is still relevant to the field of wireless communications. Using cellular systems as the axis of our exposition, we exemplify areas where PHY research has indeed hit a performance wall and where any improvements are expected to be marginal. We then discuss whether the research directions taken in the past have always been the right choice and how lessons learned could influence future policy decisions. Several of the raised issues are subsequently discussed in greater details, e.g., the growing divergence between academia and industry. With this argumentation at hand, we identify areas that are either under-developed or likely to be of impact in coming years - hence corroborating the relevance and importance of PHY research.application/pdfeng© 2011 IEEE. Personal use of this material is permitted. Permission from IEEE must be obtained for all other uses, in any current or future media, including reprinting/republishing this material for advertising or promotional purposes, creating new collective works, for resale or redistribution to servers or lists, or reuse of any copyrighted component of this work in other works./nThe final published article can be found at http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/xpls/abs_all.jsp?arnumber=5741160Comunicació sense fil, Sistemes de -- InvestigacióRàdio -- InterferènciesOSI (norma)info:eu-repo/semantics/articlehttp://dx.doi.org/10.1109/MCOM.2011.5741160FadingWireless communicationInterferenceMIMOSignal to noise ratioStandardsinfo:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess