Wireless Erasure Networks with Feedback

TL;DR

This paper introduces a simple, distributed, and throughput-optimal transmission strategy for wireless erasure networks with feedback, requiring minimal acknowledgment and no complex coding, ensuring reliable unicast communication.

Contribution

It proposes a novel, distributed transmission scheme that achieves capacity without network coding or rateless coding, using limited feedback in wireless erasure networks.

Findings

Achieves throughput optimality in wireless erasure networks with feedback.

Requires only minimal acknowledgment feedback.

Operates independently of network topology.

Abstract

Consider a lossy packet network of queues, communicating over a wireless medium. This paper presents a throughput-optimal transmission strategy for a unicast network when feedback is available, which has the following advantages: It requires a very limited form of acknowledgment feedback. It is completely distributed, and independent of the network topology. Finally, communication at the information theoretic cut-set rate requires no network coding and no rateless coding on the packets. This simple strategy consists of each node randomly choosing a packet from its buffer to transmit at each opportunity. However, the packet is only deleted from a node's buffer once it has been successfully received by the final destination