Book excerpt: Although the existing layering infrastructure--used globally for designing computers, data networks, and intelligent distributed systems and which connects various local and global communication services--is conceptually correct and pedagogically elegant, it is now well over 30 years old has started create a serious bottleneck. Using Cross-Layer Techniques for Communication Systems: Techniques and Applications explores how cross-layer methods provide ways to escape from the current communications model and overcome the challenges imposed by restrictive boundaries between layers. Written exclusively by well-established researchers, experts, and professional engineers, the book will present basic concepts, address different approaches for solving the cross-layer problem, investigate recent developments in cross-layer problems and solutions, and present the latest applications of the cross-layer in a variety of systems and networks.