We study the sum capacity of multiple unicasts in wired and wireless multihop
networks. With 2 source nodes and 2 sink nodes, there are a total of 4
independent unicast sessions (messages), one from each source to each sink node
(this setting is also known as an X network). For wired networks with arbitrary
connectivity, the sum capacity is achieved simply by routing. For wireless
networks, we explore the degrees of freedom (DoF) of multihop X networks with a
layered structure, allowing arbitrary number of hops, and arbitrary
connectivity within each hop. For the case when there are no more than two
relay nodes in each layer, the DoF can only take values 1, 4/3, 3/2 or 2, based
on the connectivity of the network, for almost all values of channel
coefficients. When there are arbitrary number of relays in each layer, the DoF
can also take the value 5/3 . Achievability schemes incorporate linear
forwarding, interference alignment and aligned interference neutralization
principles. Information theoretic converse arguments specialized for the
connectivity of the network are constructed based on the intuition from linear
dimension counting arguments.Comment: 6 pages, 7 figures, submitted to IEEE Globecom 201