Randomized network coding in broadcast wireless networks with fading edges

The unreliability of network edges in wireless networks invalidates some fundamental assumptions used in most studies on network coding and may present a performance bottleneck in its application. Particularly, wireless systems that are designed based on randomized network coding (RNC) would face two layers of uncertainty when receivers attempt to retrieve source information, among which the uncertainty brought by wireless fading can have a major impact on the system performance. In this paper, we approach the RNC scheme in wireless networks with both layers of uncertainty in mind, and we look at the joint impact of channel fading and broadcasting on the performance of RNC in the wireless setting. We show that the compromising effect of fading can be elevated when the wireless broadcasting medium is properly utilized. Furthermore, by exploiting the capacity-reliability inherent in the application of RNC, we demonstrate additional improvements in the performance of RNC over wireless network edges.