Network Coded Transmission of Fountain Codes over Cooperative Relay Networks

TL;DR

This paper proposes a network coding strategy for fountain codes in cooperative relay networks, improving throughput over erasure channels by enabling partial message information at the destination, with analysis for wireless fading and noise.

Contribution

It introduces a novel network coding approach for fountain codes in relay networks, optimizing transmission efficiency and analyzing performance in wireless fading and noise conditions.

Findings

Reduced number of transmissions needed for message recovery.

Enhanced throughput in erasure channels through network coding.

Effective application of analogue network coding in wireless environments.

Abstract

In this paper, a transmission strategy of fountain codes over cooperative relay networks is proposed. When more than one relay nodes are available, we apply network coding to fountain-coded packets. By doing this, partial information is made available to the destination node about the upcoming message block. It is therefore able to reduce the required number of transmissions over erasure channels, hence increasing the effective throughput. Its application to wireless channels with Rayleigh fading and AWGN noise is also analysed, whereby the role of analogue network coding and optimal weight selection is demonstrated.