Algebraic Network Coding Approach to Deterministic Wireless Relay Networks

The deterministic wireless relay network model, introduced by Avestimehr et al., has been proposed for approximating Gaussian relay networks. This model, known as the ADT network model, takes into account the broadcast nature of wireless medium and interference. Avestimehr et al. showed that the Min-cut Max-flow theorem holds in the ADT network. In this paper, we show that the ADT network model can be described within the algebraic network coding framework introduced by Koetter and Medard. We prove that the ADT network problem can be captured by a single matrix, called the "system matrix". We show that the min-cut of an ADT network is the rank of the system matrix; thus, eliminating the need to optimize over exponential number of cuts between two nodes to compute the min-cut of an ADT network. We extend the capacity characterization for ADT networks to a more general set of connections. Our algebraic approach not only provides the Min-cut Max-flow theorem for a single unicast/multicast connection, but also extends to non-multicast connections such as multiple multicast, disjoint multicast, and two-level multicast. We also provide sufficiency conditions for achievability in ADT networks for any general connection set. In addition, we show that the random linear network coding, a randomized distributed algorithm for network code construction, achieves capacity for the connections listed above. Finally, we extend the ADT networks to those with random erasures and cycles (thus, allowing bi-directional links). Note that ADT network was proposed for approximating the wireless networks; however, ADT network is acyclic. Furthermore, ADT network does not model the stochastic nature of the wireless links. With our algebraic framework, we incorporate both cycles as well as random failures into ADT network model.Comment: 9 pages, 12 figures, submitted to Allerton Conferenc

NB-JNCD Coding and Iterative Joint Decoding Scheme for a Reliable communication in Wireless sensor Networks with results

Privacy threat is a very serious issue in multi-hop wireless networks (MWNs) since open wireless channels are vulnerable to malicious attacks. A distributed random linear network coding approach for transmission and compression of information in general multisource multicast networks. Network nodes independently and randomly select linear mappings from inputs onto output links over some field. Network coding has the potential to thwart traffic analysis attacks since the coding/mixing operation is encouraged at intermediate nodes. However, the simple deployment of network coding cannot achieve the goal once enough packets are collected by the adversaries. This paper proposes non-binary joint network-channel coding for reliable communication in wireless networks. NB-JNCC seamlessly combines non-binary channel coding and random linear network coding, and uses an iterative two-tier coding scheme that weproposed to jointly exploit redundancy inside packets and across packets for error recovery

A Linear Network Code Construction for General Integer Connections Based on the Constraint Satisfaction Problem

The problem of finding network codes for general connections is inherently difficult in capacity constrained networks. Resource minimization for general connections with network coding is further complicated. Existing methods for identifying solutions mainly rely on highly restricted classes of network codes, and are almost all centralized. In this paper, we introduce linear network mixing coefficients for code constructions of general connections that generalize random linear network coding (RLNC) for multicast connections. For such code constructions, we pose the problem of cost minimization for the subgraph involved in the coding solution and relate this minimization to a path-based Constraint Satisfaction Problem (CSP) and an edge-based CSP. While CSPs are NP-complete in general, we present a path-based probabilistic distributed algorithm and an edge-based probabilistic distributed algorithm with almost sure convergence in finite time by applying Communication Free Learning (CFL). Our approach allows fairly general coding across flows, guarantees no greater cost than routing, and shows a possible distributed implementation. Numerical results illustrate the performance improvement of our approach over existing methods.Comment: submitted to TON (conference version published at IEEE GLOBECOM 2015

A Linear Network Code Construction for General Integer Connections Based on the Constraint Satisfaction Problem

The problem of finding network codes for general connections is inherently difficult. Resource minimization for general connections with network coding is further complicated. The existing solutions mainly rely on very restricted classes of network codes, and are almost all centralized. In this paper, we introduce linear network mixing coefficients for code constructions of general connections that generalize random linear network coding (RLNC) for multicast connections. For such code constructions, we pose the problem of cost minimization for the subgraph involved in the coding solution and relate this minimization to a Constraint Satisfaction Problem (CSP) which we show can be simplified to have a moderate number of constraints. While CSPs are NP-complete in general, we present a probabilistic distributed algorithm with almost sure convergence in finite time by applying Communication Free Learning (CFL). Our approach allows fairly general coding across flows, guarantees no greater cost than routing, and shows a possible distributed implementation

Scalar Linear Network Coding for Networks with Two Sources

Determining the capacity of networks has been a long-standing issue of interest in the literature. Although for multi-source multi-sink networks it is known that using network coding is advantageous over traditional routing, finding the best coding strategy is not trivial in general. Among different classes of codes that could be potentially used in a network, linear codes due to their simplicity are of particular interest. Although linear codes are proven to be sub-optimal in general, in some cases such as the multicast scenario they achieve the cut-set bound. Since determining the capacity of a network is closely related to the characterization of the entropy region of all its random variables, if one is interested in finding the best linear solution for a network, one should find the region of all linear representable entropy vectors of that network. With this approach, we study the scalar linear solutions over arbitrary network problems with two sources. We explicitly calculate this region for small number of variables and suggest a method for larger networks through finding the best scalar linear solution to a storage problem as an example of practical interest

On the utility of network coding in dynamic environments

Many wireless applications, such as ad-hoc networks and sensor networks, require decentralized operation in dynamically varying environments. We consider a distributed randomized network coding approach that enables efficient decentralized operation of multi-source multicast networks. We show that this approach provides substantial benefits over traditional routing methods in dynamically varying environments. We present a set of empirical trials measuring the performance of network coding versus an approximate online Steiner tree routing approach when connections vary dynamically. The results show that network coding achieves superior performance in a significant fraction of our randomly generated network examples. Such dynamic settings represent a substantially broader class of networking problems than previously recognized for which network coding shows promise of significant practical benefits compared to routing

Minimum-cost multicast over coded packet networks

We consider the problem of establishing minimum-cost multicast connections over coded packet networks, i.e., packet networks where the contents of outgoing packets are arbitrary, causal functions of the contents of received packets. We consider both wireline and wireless packet networks as well as both static multicast (where membership of the multicast group remains constant for the duration of the connection) and dynamic multicast (where membership of the multicast group changes in time, with nodes joining and leaving the group). For static multicast, we reduce the problem to a polynomial-time solvable optimization problem, and we present decentralized algorithms for solving it. These algorithms, when coupled with existing decentralized schemes for constructing network codes, yield a fully decentralized approach for achieving minimum-cost multicast. By contrast, establishing minimum-cost static multicast connections over routed packet networks is a very difficult problem even using centralized computation, except in the special cases of unicast and broadcast connections. For dynamic multicast, we reduce the problem to a dynamic programming problem and apply the theory of dynamic programming to suggest how it may be solved

On achievable rates for multicast in the presence of side information

We investigate the network source coding rate region for networks with multiple sources and multicast demands in the presence of side information, generalizing earlier results on multicast rate regions without side information. When side information is present only at the terminal nodes, we show that the rate region is precisely characterized by the cut-set bounds and that random linear coding suffices to achieve the optimal performance. When side information is present at a non-terminal node, we present an achievable region. Finally, we apply these results to obtain an inner bound on the rate region for networks with general source-demand structures