Improving Throughput Using Simple Network Coding

In traditional IP based networks, the nodes operate as store-and-forward of packets that are convoyed from source to destination. With network coding, intermediate nodes usually linearly encode packet´s content and then send out packets that are linear combinations of previously received information. The present research gives an overview of network coding structure, benefits and challenges. A simple arrangement is proposed to implement and evaluate the performance of some network models using network coding. In the present work a packet based network coding rather than symbol based coding, is used. The throughput of the network coded system as compared to the case where coding is not used have shown an increase in throughput on the expense of slight increase in packets overhead. The coding gains in throughput obtained by network coding for the networks considered in the work are closed to the theoretical ones, limited by max-flow min-cut theorem, by about 3% over the same network without coding.