Network coding-aware rate control and scheduling in wireless networks

Network coding has been recently applied to wireless networks to increase throughput. It is typically implemented as a thin layer between MAC and IP, transparently to higher layers. In this paper, we study rate control and scheduling over wireless networks with intersession network coding, as a utility maximization problem. We demonstrate that there is benefit from making rate control and scheduling aware of the underlying network coding. The key intuition is that network coding introduces new network coded flows and eventually new conflicts between nodes, which should be taken into account both in rate control and in scheduling. We compare the network coding-aware to the network coding-unaware schemes in two cases: (i) when optimal control is used and (ii) when practical, suboptimal control is used. Our main goal is to make the case for network coding-aware rate control and scheduling, via simulation of representative examples. Along the way, we also propose a practical scheme that a...

• Type: Journal
• Year: 2009
• Where: ICMCS
• Authors: Hulya Seferoglu, Athina Markopoulou, Ulas C. Kozat
• Keywords: ICMCS 2009, Multimedia, Optimal Control, Rate Control, Wireless Networks