Foreword. Special issue: Algorithms for wireless and ad-hoc networks

Very few of us can imagine our lives without cellular phones and, more generally, without pervasive connections. But all of us, including those few who remain cool, are attracted by all the challenging algorithmic problems involved in obtaining connections anywhere and at any time. New levels of complex- ity, not present in the algorithmic design for wired networking, emerge. Indeed, the algorithms must optimize the use of scarce resources such as bandwidth and battery power, must deal with unreliable wireless channels as well as selfish and sometimes Byzantine partners, and must commute from one wireless sys- tem to another in a way transparent to the system users. In the above scenario, the complexity has been tamed using new clever algorithms, which are often based on those that are al- ready part of the foundations of computer science.