Network coding for efficient network multicast

✍ Scribed by Emina Soljanin; Piyush Gupta; Gerhard Kramer

• Publisher: Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers
• Year: 2009
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 131 KB
• Volume: 14
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 1089-7089
• DOI: 10.1002/bltj.20394

✦ Synopsis

Network coding has emerged as a powerful technique based on a simple but far-reaching observation that, in communication networks, one can allow intermediate nodes to not only forward but also combine and process the incoming information flows. Today, the field is attracting significant interest from both academia and industry, and we are beginning to see the first practical applications. In this survey paper, we first review the main ideas, concepts, and applications of network coding. We then discuss some of the algorithmic aspects of performing network multicast efficiently with network coding. Lastly, we give an overview of a few quantitative results that compare the performance of network coding with that of traditional routing in certain types of communication networks. © 2009 Alcatel-Lucent. and consumed do not necessarily need to be kept separate when they are transported throughout the network: there are ways to combine and later extract independent information.

Combining independent data streams enables us to better tailor the information flow to the network environment and accommodate the demands of specific traffic patterns. This shift in paradigm is expected to revolutionize the way we manage, operate, and even understand networks and will have a deep impact on a wide range of areas such as reliable delivery, resource sharing, efficient flow control, network monitoring, and security.

Network coding is expected to play an important role in the way the coming generations of networks will be designed and operated. Theoretical results obtained since the introduction of network coding show its enormous potential for improving network performance [18,19]. Depending on the traffic scenario, on whether the network is wireless or wired,