Online multicasting using network coding in energy constrained wireless ad hoc networks

We consider the optimized joint design of the physical, medium access control, and network layers to maximize the lifetime of energy constrained wireless ad hoc networks for online multicast applications. We consider two types of lifetime definitions, first node failure and multicast functionality. For each definition, we investigate two energy efficient approaches of minimum total energy and min-max per node energy usage to maximize network lifetime. Using network coding at the network layer, the problem of computing multipath flow for both schemes is formulated as a linear optimization problem. Simulation results are provided assessing the effectiveness of the algorithms.