Minimal network coding redundancy for peer-to-peer content distribution

Network coding, with the redundant information it generates, has been shown to achieve optimal multicast throughput. Such redundancy plays a key role in maximizing throughput over multiple content delivery paths between network nodes. In this paper, we study the use of network coding to speed up content distribution in peer-to-peer networks where only a constraint number of selected peers can encode, i.e. become network coders. Our goal is to optimize the redundancy network coding generates, i.e. we want to answer the question how much a given network coder should encode. This serves as a step towards understanding how network coding improves content distribution in order to optimize its deployment. Given the network topology, we analytically figure the optimal redundancy ratio at each network coder to achieve shortest distribution time. Simulation results confirm the effectiveness of the proposed coding redundancy in shortening content distribution time while noticeably reducing the amount of encoding.