The Benefit of Limited Feedback to Generation-Based Random Linear Network Coding in Wireless Broadcast

Random linear network coding (RLNC) is asymptotically throughput optimal in the wireless broadcast of a block of packets from a sender to a set of receivers, but suffers from heavy computational load and packet decoding delay. To mitigate this problem while maintaining good throughput, we partition the packet block into disjoint generations after broadcasting the packets uncoded once and collecting one round of feedback about receivers’ packet reception state. We prove the NP-hardness of the optimal partitioning problem by using a hypergraph coloring approach, and develop an efficient heuristic algorithm for its solution. Simulations show that our algorithm outperforms existing solutions.