An efficient network coding based broadcast scheme with reliability guarantee

There is an increasing demand for broadcasting information of common interest to a large number of users. The unreliable nature of wireless links and the difficulty of acknowledging the correct reception of every broadcast packet by every user when the number of users becomes large are two major challenges for wireless network broadcasting. In this paper we investigate the problem that a base station broadcasts a given number of packets to a given number of users, without user acknowledgment, while being able to provide a guarantee on the probability of successful delivery. Network coding technique is employed to improve both the efficiency and the reliability of the broadcast. Performance analysis is conducted. Based on the analysis, an upper and a lower bound on the number of packet transmissions required to meet the reliability guarantee are obtained. Simulations are conducted to validate the accuracy of the theoretical analysis. The technique and analysis developed in this paper can be useful for designing strategies to deliver information of common interest to a large number of users efficiently and reliably.