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arXiv · 0910.3975

On the Delay of Network Coding over Line Networks

Theodoros K. Dikaliotis·Alexandros G. Dimakis·Tracey Ho·Michelle Effros
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Abstract

We analyze a simple network where a source and a receiver are connected by a line of erasure channels of different reliabilities. Recent prior work has shown that random linear network coding can achieve the min-cut capacity and therefore the asymptotic rate is determined by the worst link of the line network. In this paper we investigate the delay for transmitting a batch of packets, which is a function of all the erasure probabilities and the number of packets in the batch. We show a monotonicity result on the delay function and derive simple expressions which characterize the expected delay behavior of line networks. Further, we use a martingale bounded differences argument to show that the actual delay is tightly concentrated around its expectation.

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Theodoros K. Dikaliotis, Alexandros G. Dimakis, Tracey Ho, Michelle Effros. 2009-10-20. On the Delay of Network Coding over Line Networks. https://arxiv.org/abs/0910.3975

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