The groupcast index coding (GIC) problem is a generalization of the index coding problem, where one packet can be demanded by multiple users. In this paper, we propose a new coding scheme called independent user partition multicast (IUPM) for the GIC problem. The novelty of this scheme compared to the user partition multicast (UPM) (Shanmugam \textit{et al.}, 2015) is in removing redundancies in the UPM solution by eliminating the linearly dependent coded packets. We also prove that the UPM scheme subsumes the packet partition multicast (PPM) scheme (Tehrani \textit{et al.}, 2012). Hence, the IUPM scheme is a generalization of both PPM and UPM schemes. Furthermore, inspired by jointly considering users and packets, we modify the approximation partition multicast (CAPM) scheme (Unal and Wagner, 2016) to achieve a new polynomial-time algorithm for solving the general GIC problem. We characterize a class of GIC problems with $\frac{k(k-1)}{2}$ packets, for any integer $k\geq 2$, for which the IUPM scheme is optimal. We also prove that for this class, the broadcast rate of the proposed new heuristic algorithm is $k$, while the broadcast rate of the CAPM scheme is $\mathcal{O}(k^2)$.
The capacity of caching networks has received considerable attention in the past few years. A particularly studied setting is the case of a single server (e.g., a base station) and multiple users, each of which caches segments of files in a finite library. Each user requests one (whole) file in the library and the server sends a common coded multicast message to satisfy all users at once. The problem consists of finding the smallest possible codeword length to satisfy such requests. In this paper we consider the generalization to the case where each user places $L \geq 1$ requests. The obvious…
Coded multicasting has been shown to improve the caching performance of content delivery networks with multiple caches downstream of a common multicast link. However, the schemes that have been shown to achieve order-optimal perfor- mance require content items to be partitioned into a number of packets that grows exponentially with the number of users [1]. In this paper, we first extend the analysis of the achievable scheme in [2] to the case of heterogeneous cache sizes and demand distribu- tions, providing an achievable scheme and an upper bound on the limiting average performance when the n…
We consider the problem of linear network coding over communication networks, representable by directed acyclic graphs, with multiple groupcast sessions: the network comprises of multiple destination nodes, each desiring messages from multiple sources. We adopt an interference alignment perspective, providing new insights into designing practical network coding schemes as well as the impact of network topology on the complexity of the alignment scheme. In particular, we show that under certain (polynomial-time checkable) constraints on networks with $K$ sources, it is possible to achieve a rat…
The length of an optimal scalar linear index code of a groupcast index coding problem is equal to the minrank of its side information hypergraph. The side-information hypergraph becomes a side-information graph for a special class of groupcast index coding problems known as unicast index coding problems. The computation of minrank is an NP-hard problem. There exists a low rank matrix completion method and clique cover method to find suboptimal solutions to the index coding problem represented by a side-information graph. However, both the methods are NP-hard. The number of computations require…
The groupcast index coding problem is the most general version of the classical index coding problem, where any receiver can demand messages that are also demanded by other receivers. Any groupcast index coding problem is described by its \emph{fitting matrix} which contains unknown entries along with $1$'s and $0$'s. The problem of finding an optimal scalar linear code is equivalent to completing this matrix with known entries such that the rank of the resulting matrix is minimized. Any row basis of such a completion gives an optimal \emph{scalar linear} code. An index coding problem is said …
An optimal linear coding solution for index coding problem is established. Instead of network coding approach by focus on graph theoric and algebraic methods a linear coding program for solving both unicast and groupcast index coding problem is presented. The coding is proved to be the optimal solution from the linear perspective and can be easily utilize for any number of messages. The importance of this work is lying mostly on the usage of the presented coding in the groupcast index coding problem.
The two-sender groupcast index coding problem (TGICP) consists of a set of receivers, where all the messages demanded by the set of receivers are distributed among the two senders. The senders can possibly have a set of messages in common. Each message can be demanded by more than one receiver. Each receiver has a subset of messages (known as its side information) and demands a message it does not have. The objective is to design scalar linear codes at the senders with the minimum aggregate code length such that all the receivers are able to decode their demands, by leveraging the knowledge of…
A novel class of achievable rate regions is obtained for the K-receiver broadcast channel with two groupcast messages. The associated achievability schemes are parameterized by an expansion of the message set which then determines how random coding techniques are employed, which include generalized versions of {\em up-set} message-splitting, the generation of possibly multiple auxiliary codebooks for certain compositions of split messages using superposition coding, partial interference decoding at all receivers, and joint unique and non-unique decoding. New capacity results are established fo…
An interference alignment perspective is used to identify the simplest instances (minimum possible number of edges in the alignment graph, no more than 2 interfering messages at any destination) of index coding problems where non-Shannon information inequalities are necessary for capacity characterization. In particular, this includes the first known example of a multiple unicast (one destination per message) index coding problem where non-Shannon information inequalities are shown to be necessary. The simplest multiple unicast example has 7 edges in the alignment graph and 11 messages. The si…
We give an information flow interpretation for multicasting using network coding. This generalizes the fluid model used to represent flows to a single receiver. Using the generalized model, we present a decentralized algorithm to minimize the number of packets that undergo network coding. We also propose a decentralized algorithm to construct capacity achieving multicast codes when the processing at some nodes is restricted to routing. The proposed algorithms can be coupled with existing decentralized schemes to achieve minimum cost muticast.
We propose a new way to construct a multicast coding scheme for linear deterministic relay networks. Our construction can be regarded as a generalization of the well-known multicast network coding scheme of Jaggi et al. to linear deterministic relay networks and is based on the notion of flow for a unicast session that was introduced by the authors in earlier work. We present randomized and deterministic polynomial--time versions of our algorithm and show that for a network with $g$ destinations, our deterministic algorithm can achieve the capacity in $\left\lceil \log(g+1)\right\rceil $ uses …
The index coding problem is studied from an interference alignment perspective, providing new results as well as new insights into, and generalizations of, previously known results. An equivalence is established between multiple unicast index coding where each message is desired by exactly one receiver, and multiple groupcast index coding where a message can be desired by multiple receivers, which settles the heretofore open question of insufficiency of linear codes for the multiple unicast index coding problem by equivalence with multiple groupcast settings where this question has previously …
In this letter, we propose two power allocation schemes based on the statistical channel state information (CSI) and instantaneous s->r CSI at transmitters respectively for a 2-N-2 cooperative multicast system with non-regenerative network coding.Then the isolated precoder and the distributed precoder are respectively applied to the schemes to further improve the system performance by achieving the full diversity gain. Finally, we demonstrate that joint instantaneous s->r CSI based power allocation and distributed precoder design achieve the best performance.
This letter focuses on power allocation schemes for a basic multicast cell with wireless regenerative network coding (RNC). In RNC, mixed signals received from the two sources are jointly decoded by the relay where decoded symbols are superposed in either the complex field (RCNC) or Galois field (RGNC) before being retransmitted. We deduce the optimal statistical channels state information (CSI) based power allocation and give a comparison between the two RNCs. When instantaneous CSI is available at each transmitter, we propose a suboptimal power allocation for RCNC, which achieves better perf…
We give an algorithm for finding network encoding and decoding equations for error-free multicasting networks with multiple sources and sinks. The algorithm given is efficient (polynomial complexity) and works on any kind of network (acyclic, link cyclic, flow cyclic, or even in the presence of knots). The key idea will be the appropriate use of the delay (both natural and additional) during the encoding. The resulting code will always work with finite delay with binary encoding coefficients.
For a multi-source multi-terminal noiseless network, the key-dissemination problem involves the task of multicasting a secret key K from the network sources to its terminals. As in secure multicast network-coding, in the key-dissemination problem the source nodes have access to independent randomness and, as the network is noiseless, the resulting key K is a function of the sources' information. However, different from traditional forms of multicast, in key-dissemination the key K need not consist of source messages, but rather may be any function of the information generated at the sources, a…
Random linear network coding is a particularly decentralized approach to the multicast problem. Use of random network codes introduces a non-zero probability however that some sinks will not be able to successfully decode the required sources. One of the main theoretical motivations for random network codes stems from the lower bound on the probability of successful decoding reported by Ho et. al. (2003). This result demonstrates that all sinks in a linearly solvable network can successfully decode all sources provided that the random code field size is large enough. This paper develops a new …
Sparse random linear network coding (SRLNC) used as a class of erasure codes to ensure the reliability of multicast communications has been widely investigated. However, an exact expression for the decoding success probability of SRLNC is still unknown, and existing expressions are either asymptotic or approximate. In this paper, we derive an exact expression for the decoding success probability of SRLNC. The key to achieving this is to propose a criterion that a vector is contained in a subspace. To obtain this criterion, we construct a basis of a subspace, with respect to this basis, the coo…
The encoding complexity of network coding for single multicast networks has been intensively studied from several aspects: e.g., the time complexity, the required number of encoding links, and the required field size for a linear code solution. However, these issues as well as the solvability are less understood for networks with multiple multicast sessions. Recently, Wang and Shroff showed that the solvability of networks with two unit-rate multicast sessions (2-URMS) can be decided in polynomial time. In this paper, we prove that for the 2-URMS networks: $1)$ the solvability can be determine…
In an acyclic multicast network, it is well known that a linear network coding solution over GF($q$) exists when $q$ is sufficiently large. In particular, for each prime power $q$ no smaller than the number of receivers, a linear solution over GF($q$) can be efficiently constructed. In this work, we reveal that a linear solution over a given finite field does \emph{not} necessarily imply the existence of a linear solution over all larger finite fields. Specifically, we prove by construction that: (i) For every source dimension no smaller than 3, there is a multicast network linearly solvable o…
The non-uniform demand network coding problem is posed as a single-source and multiple-sink network transmission problem where the sinks may have heterogeneous demands. In contrast with multicast problems, non-uniform demand problems are concerned with the amounts of data received by each sink, rather than the specifics of the received data. In this work, we enumerate non-uniform network demand scenarios under which network coding solutions can be found in polynomial time. This is accomplished by relating the demand problem with the graph coloring problem, and then applying results from the st…
This paper studies a special class of multicast index coding problems where a sender transmits messages to multiple receivers, each with some side information. Here, each receiver knows a unique message a priori, and there is no restriction on how many messages each receiver requests from the sender. For this class of multicast index coding problems, we obtain the optimal index code, which has the shortest codelength for which the sender needs to send in order for all receivers to obtain their (respective) requested messages. This is the first class of index coding problems where the optimal i…
In this paper, we study the contribution of network coding (NC) in improving the multicast capacity of random wireless ad hoc networks when nodes are endowed with multi-packet transmission (MPT) and multi-packet reception (MPR) capabilities. We show that a per session throughput capacity of $Θ(nT^{3}(n))$, where $n$ is the total number of nodes and T(n) is the communication range, can be achieved as a tight bound when each session contains a constant number of sinks. Surprisingly, an identical order capacity can be achieved when nodes have only MPR and MPT capabilities. This result proves that…
Reliable and low latency multicast communication is important for future vehicular communication. Sparse random linear network coding approach used to ensure the reliability of multicast communication has been widely investigated. A fundamental problem of such communication is to characterize the decoding success probability, which is given by the probability of a sparse random matrix over a finite field being full rank. However, the exact expression for the probability of a sparse random matrix being full rank is still unknown, and existing approximations are recursive or not consistently tig…
The problem of network coding with multicast of a single source to multisink has first been studied by Ahlswede, Cai, Li and Yeung in 2000, in which they have established the celebrated max-flow mini-cut theorem on non-physical information flow over a network of independent channels. On the other hand, in 1980, Han has studied the case with correlated multisource and a single sink from the viewpoint of polymatroidal functions in which a necessary and sufficient condition has been demonstrated for reliable transmission over the network. This paper presents an attempt to unify both cases, which …
The goal of this paper is two-fold. First, to establish a tractable model for the underwater acoustic channel useful for network optimization in terms of convexity. Second, to propose a network coding based lower bound for transmission power in underwater acoustic networks, and compare this bound to the performance of several network layer schemes. The underwater acoustic channel is characterized by a path loss that depends strongly on transmission distance and signal frequency. The exact relationship among power, transmission band, distance and capacity for the Gaussian noise scenario is a co…
We approach index coding as a special case of rate-distortion with multiple receivers, each with some side information about the source. Specifically, using techniques developed for the rate-distortion problem, we provide two upper bounds and one lower bound on the optimal index coding rate. The upper bounds involve specific choices of the auxiliary random variables in the best existing scheme for the rate-distortion problem. The lower bound is based on a new lower bound for the general rate-distortion problem. The bounds are shown to coincide for a number of (groupcast) index coding instances…
We consider a lossy multicast network in which the reliability is provided by means of Random Linear Network Coding. Our goal is to characterise the performance of such network in terms of the probability that a source message is delivered to all destination nodes. Previous studies considered coding over large finite fields, small numbers of destination nodes or specific, often impractical, channel conditions. In contrast, we focus on a general problem, considering arbitrary field size and number of destination nodes, as well as a realistic channel. We propose a lower bound on the probability …
In this paper, we consider multi-quality multicast beamforming of a video stream from a multi-antenna base station (BS) to multiple single-antenna users receiving different qualities of the same video stream, via scalable video coding (SVC). Leveraging the layered structure of SVC and exploiting superposition coding (SC) as well as successive interference cancelation (SIC), we propose a layer-based multi-quality multicast beamforming scheme. To reduce the complexity, we also propose a quality-based multi-quality multicast beamforming scheme, which further utilizes the layered structure of SVC …
Consider transceiver designs in a multiuser multi-input single-output (MISO) downlink channel, where the users are to receive the same data stream simultaneously. This problem, known as physical-layer multicasting, has drawn much interest. Presently, a popularized approach is transmit beamforming, in which the beamforming optimization is handled by a rank-one approximation method called semidefinite relaxation (SDR). SDR-based beamforming has been shown to be promising for a small or moderate number of users. This paper describes two new transceiver strategies for physical-layer multicasting. …
In this paper, we shed light on how an adaptive, efficient error coding in the transport layer helps ensure the application requirements. We recap the use of MDS codes and show that binary coding can significantly reduce the complexity and hence increase the applicability also for embedded devices. We exploit the persymmetric structure of the generator matrix in polar codes to establish a duality of dispersion over channels (the polarization effect) and over packets (the generality required for multicast transmission), thereby constructing systematic polar codes for incremental redundancy whos…
We consider the problem of serving multicast flows in a crossbar switch. We show that linear network coding across packets of a flow can sustain traffic patterns that cannot be served if network coding were not allowed. Thus, network coding leads to a larger rate region in a multicast crossbar switch. We demonstrate a traffic pattern which requires a switch speedup if coding is not allowed, whereas, with coding the speedup requirement is eliminated completely. In addition to throughput benefits, coding simplifies the characterization of the rate region. We give a graph-theoretic characterizati…
This paper examines the problem of rate allocation for multicasting over slow Rayleigh fading channels using network coding. In the proposed model, the network is treated as a collection of Rayleigh fading multiple access channels. In this model, rate allocation scheme that is based solely on the statistics of the channels is presented. The rate allocation scheme is aimed at minimizing the outage probability. An upper bound is presented for the probability of outage in the fading multiple access channel. A suboptimal solution based on this bound is given. A distributed primal-dual gradient alg…
Randomized network coding (RNC) greatly reduces the complexity of implementing network coding in large-scale, heterogeneous networks. This paper examines two tradeoffs in applying RNC: The first studies how the performance of RNC varies with a node's randomizing capabilities. Specifically, a limited randomized network coding (L-RNC) scheme - in which intermediate nodes perform randomized encoding based on only a limited number of random coefficients - is proposed and its performance bounds are analyzed. Such a L-RNC approach is applicable to networks in which nodes have either limited computat…
Coding schemes for discrete memoryless multicast networks (DM-MN) with rate-limited feedback from the receivers and relays to the transmitter are proposed. The schemes improve over the noisy network coding proposed by Lim et al.. For the single relay channel with relay-transmitter feedback, our coding schemes recover Gabbai and Bross's results, and strictly improve on noisy network coding, distributed decode-forward coding proposed by Lim et al., and all known lower bounds on the achievable rates proposed for the setup without feedback. The coding schemes are based on block-Markov coding, supe…
We present a superposition coding scheme for communication over a network, which combines partial decode and forward and noisy network coding. This hybrid scheme is termed as superposition noisy network coding. The scheme is designed and analyzed for single relay channel, single source multicast network and multiple source multicast network. The achievable rate region is determined for each case. The special cases of Gaussian single relay channel and two way relay channel are analyzed for superposition noisy network coding. The achievable rate of the proposed scheme is higher than the existing…
Multi-resolution codes enable multicast at different rates to different receivers, a setup that is often desirable for graphics or video streaming. We propose a simple, distributed, two-stage message passing algorithm to generate network codes for single-source multicast of multi-resolution codes. The goal of this "pushback algorithm" is to maximize the total rate achieved by all receivers, while guaranteeing decodability of the base layer at each receiver. By conducting pushback and code generation stages, this algorithm takes advantage of inter-layer as well as intra-layer coding. Numerical …
Interference in wireless networks is one of the key-capacity limiting factor. The multicast capacity of an ad- hoc wireless network decreases with an increasing number of transmitting and/or receiving nodes within a fixed area. Digital Network Coding (DNC) has been shown to improve the multicast capacity of non-interfering wireless network. However recently proposed Physical-layer Network Coding (PNC) and Analog Network Coding (ANC) has shown that it is possible to decode an unknown packet from the collision of two packet, when one of the colliding packet is known a priori. Taking advantage of…
It is common in the study of secure multicast network coding in the presence of an eavesdropper that has access to $z$ network links, to assume that the source node is the only node that generates random keys. In this setting, the secure multicast rate is well understood. Computing the secure multicast rate, or even the secure unicast rate, in the more general setting in which all network nodes may generate (independent) random keys is known to be as difficult as computing the (non-secure) capacity of multiple-unicast network coding instances --- a well known open problem. This work treats an …
The capacity of multiuser networks has been a long-standing problem in information theory. Recently, Avestimehr et al. have proposed a deterministic network model to approximate multiuser wireless networks. This model, known as the ADT network model, takes into account the broadcast nature of wireless medium and interference. We show that the ADT network model can be described within the algebraic network coding framework introduced by Koetter and Medard. We prove that the ADT network problem can be captured by a single matrix, and show that the min-cut of an ADT network is the rank of this ma…
In this work we improve on the bounds presented by Li&Li for network coding gain in the undirected case. A tightened bound for the undirected multicast problem with three terminals is derived. An interesting result shows that with fractional routing, routing throughput can achieve at least 75% of the coding throughput. A tighter bound for the general multicast problem with any number of terminals shows that coding gain is strictly less than 2. Our derived bound depends on the number of terminals in the multicast network and approaches 2 for arbitrarily large number of terminals.
We focus on the following instance of an index coding problem, where a set of receivers are required to decode multiple messages, whilst each knows one of the messages a priori. In particular, here we consider a generalized setting where they are multiple senders, each sender only knows a subset of messages, and all senders are required to collectively transmit the index code. For a single sender, Ong and Ho (ICC, 2012) have established the optimal index codelength, where the lower bound was obtained using a pruning algorithm. In this paper, the pruning algorithm is simplified, and used in con…
A major challenge of wireless multicast is to be able to support a large number of users while simultaneously maintaining low delay and low feedback overhead. In this paper, we develop a joint coding and feedback scheme named Moving Window Network Coding with Anonymous Feedback (MWNC-AF) that successfully addresses this challenge. In particular, we show that our scheme simultaneously achieves both a constant decoding delay and a constant feedback overhead, irrespective of the number of receivers $n$, without sacrificing either throughput or reliability. We explicitly characterize the asymptoti…
The problem of serving multicast flows in a crossbar switch is considered. Intra-flow linear network coding is shown to achieve a larger rate region than the case without coding. A traffic pattern is presented which is achievable with coding but requires a switch speedup when coding is not allowed. The rate region with coding can be characterized in a simple graph-theoretic manner, in terms of the stable set polytope of the "enhanced conflict graph". No such graph-theoretic characterization is known for the case of fanout splitting without coding. The minimum speedup needed to achieve 100% thr…
Insufficiency of linear coding for the network coding problem was first proved by providing an instance which is solvable only by nonlinear network coding (Dougherty et al., 2005).Based on the work of Effros, et al., 2015, this specific network coding instance can be modeled as a groupcast index coding (GIC)instance with 74 messages and 80 users (where a message can be requested by multiple users). This proves the insufficiency of linear coding for the GIC problem. Using the systematic approach proposed by Maleki et al., 2014, the aforementioned GIC instance can be cast into a unicast index co…
In this work we study zero vs. epsilon-error capacity in network coding instances. For multicast network coding it is well known that all rates that can be delivered with arbitrarily small error probability can also be delivered with zero error probability; that is, the epsilon-error multicast capacity region and zero-error multicast capacity region are identical. For general network coding instances in which all sources originate at the same source node, Chan and Grant recently showed [ISIT 2010] that, again, epsilon-error communication has no rate advantage over zero-error communication. We …
Arithmetic Coding (AC) is widely used for the entropy coding of text and video data. It involves recursive partitioning of the range [0,1) in accordance with the relative probabilities of occurrence of the input symbols. A data (image or video) encryption scheme based on arithmetic coding called as Chaotic Arithmetic Coding (CAC) has been presented in previous works. In CAC, a large number of chaotic maps can be used to perform coding, each achieving Shannon optimal compression performance. The exact choice of map is governed by a key. CAC has the effect of scrambling the intervals without mak…
For a (single-source) multicast network, the size of a base field is the most known and studied algebraic identity that is involved in characterizing its linear solvability over the base field. In this paper, we design a new class $\mathcal{N}$ of multicast networks and obtain an explicit formula for the linear solvability of these networks, which involves the associated coset numbers of a multiplicative subgroup in a base field. The concise formula turns out to be the first that matches the topological structure of a multicast network and algebraic identities of a field other than size. It fu…
We consider the problem of multicasting information from a source to a set of receivers over a network where intermediate network nodes perform randomized network coding operations on the source packets. We propose a channel model for the non-coherent network coding introduced by Koetter and Kschischang in [6], that captures the essence of such a network operation, and calculate the capacity as a function of network parameters. We prove that use of subspace coding is optimal, and show that, in some cases, the capacity-achieving distribution uses subspaces of several dimensions, where the emplo…
A new coding scheme for general N-node relay networks is presented for unicast, multicast, and broadcast. The proposed distributed decode-forward scheme combines and generalizes Marton coding for single-hop broadcast channels and the Cover-El Gamal partial decode-forward coding scheme for 3-node relay channels. The key idea of the scheme is to precode all the codewords of the entire network at the source by multicoding over multiple blocks. This encoding step allows these codewords to carry partial information of the messages implicitly without complicated rate splitting and routing. This part…
The K-user discrete memoryless (DM) broadcast channel (BC) with two nested multicast messages is studied in which one common message is to be multicast to all receivers and the second private message to a subset of receivers. The receivers that must decode both messages are referred to as private receivers and the others that must decode only the common message as common receivers. For two nested multicast messages, we establish the capacity region for several classes of DM BCs characterized by the respective associated sets of pair-wise relationships between and among the common and private r…
Network coding (NC), when combined with multipath routing, enables a linear programming (LP) formulation for a multi-source multicast with intra-session network coding (MISNC) problem. However, it is still hard to solve using conventional methods due to the enormous scale of variables or constraints. In this paper, we try to solve this problem in terms of throughput maximization from an algorithmic perspective. We propose a novel formulation based on the extereme flow decomposition technique, which facilitates the design and analysis of approximation and online algorithms. For the offline scen…
Network Coding encourages information coding across a communication network. While the necessity, benefit and complexity of network coding are sensitive to the underlying graph structure of a network, existing theory on network coding often treats the network topology as a black box, focusing on algebraic or information theoretic aspects of the problem. This work aims at an in-depth examination of the relation between algebraic coding and network topologies. We mathematically establish a series of results along the direction of: if network coding is necessary/beneficial, or if a particular fin…
We present sufficient conditions for multicasting a set of correlated sources over cooperative networks. We propose joint source-Wyner-Ziv encoding/sliding-window decoding scheme, in which each receiver considers an ordered partition of other nodes. Subject to this scheme, we obtain a set of feasibility constraints for each ordered partition. We consolidate the results of different ordered partitions by utilizing a result of geometrical approach to obtain the sufficient conditions. We observe that these sufficient conditions are indeed necessary conditions for Aref networks. As a consequence o…
