Effect of the connectivity on the performance of Cooperative Network Coding

Cooperative Network Coding is a novel technology that synergistically integrates Network Coding with cluster-based Cooperative Communications to produce enhanced network reliability and security features, while improving the throughput. In this paper, we consider the effect of the connectivity on the performance of wireless sensor networks using Cooperative Network Coding, and we present scenarios where the values of the connectivity optimize the throughput. Generally, Cooperative Network Coding provides its optimal throughput when the number of nodes in the first cluster connected to the source node is equal to the number of source packets, the number of nodes in cluster i+1 connected to the node (i, j) is at least 4 and the destination node is connected to all the nodes in the last cluster. However, if for any reason the connectivity of nodes between two adjacent clusters is reduced, Cooperative Network Coding can increase its performance by connecting all the nodes in the first cluster to the source node.