Achieving minimum-cost multicast: a decentralized approach based on network coding

— We present decentralized algorithms that compute minimum-cost subgraphs for establishing multicast connections in networks that use coding. These algorithms, coupled with existing decentralized schemes for constructing network codes, constitute a fully decentralized approach for achieving minimumcost multicast. Our approach is in sharp contrast to the prevailing approach based on approximation algorithms for the directed Steiner tree problem, which is suboptimal and generally assumes centralized computation with full network knowledge. We also give extensions beyond the basic problem of fixed-rate multicast in networks with directed point-to-point links, and consider the case of elastic rate demand as well as the problem of minimumenergy multicast in wireless networks.

• Type: Conference
• Year: 2005
• Where: INFOCOM
• Authors: Desmond S. Lun, Niranjan Ratnakar, Ralf Koetter, Muriel Médard, Ebad Ahmed, Hyunjoo Lee
• Keywords: Communications, INFOCOM 2005, Minimumcost Multicast, Multicast, Multicast Connections