Delay optimization of wireless networks with network coding

We address the problem of minimum average packet delay of Multi-hop Wireless Networks (MWN) which uses network coding. Our objective is to allocate capacities to different wireless nodes in a way that the average packet delay in the network is minimized under the assumption that the network topology, the traffic matrix in the network, and routing are given. Exploiting queueing theory as well as wireless interference modeling, we present an optimization that performs a non-linear search for the minimum average delay of a network. The proposed formulation, moreover, is valid both in the presence and the absence of opportunistic listening mechanisms for any pattern of flow. Our numerical results show that significant performance improvement can be achieved by using network coding.