Joint Scheduling and Instantaneously Decodable Network Coding

We consider a wireless multi-hop network and design an algorithm for jointly optimal scheduling of packet transmissions and network coding. We consider network coding across different users, however with the restriction that packets have to be decoded after one hop. We compute the stability region of this scheme and propose an online algorithm that stabilizes every arrival rate vector within the stability region. The online algorithm requires computation of stable sets in an appropriately defined conflict graph. We show by means of simulations that this inherently hard problem is tractable for some instances and that network coding extends the stability region over routing and leads, on average, to a smaller backlog.