Isn't Hybrid ARQ Sufficient?

TL;DR

This paper questions the necessity of multi-layer coding in reliable communication, suggesting that in multicast scenarios and under protocol restrictions, concatenated coding can be more beneficial than physical layer coding alone.

Contribution

It provides a probabilistic model analysis showing when multi-layer coding outperforms physical layer coding, especially in multicast and restricted protocol environments.

Findings

Multi-layer coding can be advantageous in multicast scenarios.

Physical layer coding suffices in point-to-point communications.

Protocol restrictions influence the effectiveness of coding strategies.

Abstract

In practical systems, reliable communication is often accomplished by coding at different network layers. We question the necessity of this approach and examine when it can be beneficial. Through conceptually simple probabilistic models (based on coin tossing), we argue that multicast scenarios and protocol restrictions may make concatenated multi-layer coding preferable to physical layer coding alone, which is mostly not the case in point-to-point communications.