Random Access with Physical-layer Network Coding

TL;DR

This paper introduces a novel random access method using physical-layer network coding, allowing recovery of linear combinations of colliding packets, leading to higher throughput than traditional methods like slotted ALOHA.

Contribution

The paper presents a new random access approach leveraging physical-layer network coding to improve throughput by recovering linear combinations of collided packets.

Findings

Throughput significantly exceeds traditional strategies

Linear combinations enable recovery of original packets

Outperforms multipacket reception methods

Abstract

Leveraging recent progress in physical-layer network coding we propose a new approach to random access: When packets collide, it is possible to recover a linear combination of the packets at the receiver. Over many rounds of transmission, the receiver can thus obtain many linear combinations and eventually recover all original packets. This is by contrast to slotted ALOHA where packet collisions lead to complete erasures. The throughput of the proposed strategy is derived and shown to be significantly superior to the best known strategies, including multipacket reception.