Title: On modelling network coded ARQ-based channels

Authors: Alaa Al Sebae; Mark S. Leeson; Roger J. Green

Addresses: School of Engineering, University of Warwick, Coventry CV4 7AL, UK ' School of Engineering, University of Warwick, Coventry CV4 7AL, UK ' School of Engineering, University of Warwick, Coventry CV4 7AL, UK

Abstract: Network coding (NC) offers throughput improvements by algebraically combining multiple input packet streams which address one output port at an intermediate node. We present a practical implementation of NC with error control, namely stop-and-wait automatic repeat request (SW ARQ). We apply a modified NC scheme at an intermediate SW ARQ-based link to reduce ARQ control signals and then extend this to NC in a butterfly multicast network which adopts the selective repeat (SR) ARQ protocol as its error control scheme. We validate our throughput analysis using a relatively recent discrete-event simulator, SimEvents®. The results show a throughput advantage of at least 50%, particularly in the presence of high error rates. In the multicast SR ARQ network, NC-SR ARQ effectively doubles the throughput compared with the traditional scheme and increases the protocol's ability to deal with propagation times that are long in comparison with the packet inter-arrival time.

Keywords: network coding; butterfly networks; communication systems; routing; automatic repeat request; ARQ; stop-and-wait; selective repeat; modelling; error control; discrete-event simulation; DES.

DOI: 10.1504/IJSSC.2014.062467

International Journal of Space-Based and Situated Computing, 2014 Vol.4 No.2, pp.65 - 76

Received: 09 Jan 2014
Accepted: 09 Jan 2014

Published online: 05 Jul 2014 *

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