Cross-Layer Design of Joint Beamforming and Random Network Coding in Wireless Multicast Networks

In this letter, we consider a wireless network where the transmitter, such as a base station, multicasts hard-deadline-constrained prioritized data to users over fading channels. We propose a new cross-layer transmission scheme that involves simultaneous smart antenna beamforming at physical layer and random network coding at network layer to maximize the overall network throughput. In this joint design, beamforming is used for dynamic transmitting power allocation to achieve power gain; while the random network coding is adopted to achieve coding gain. The simulation results show the effectiveness of the proposed algorithm.