摘要 |
An architecture by which combined scheduling and network coding can be used in mesh networks, and more particularly wireless mesh networks. In various embodiments, this architecture includes a scheduling MAC protocol for scheduling nodes in the mesh network in order to take advantage of network coding opportunities. The schedule takes advantage of these opportunities by assigning a gain to transmit packets based upon the number of packets that are transmitted concurrently and choosing a schedule which minimizes the gain over the scheduling horizon. Regarding the assigned gain, in one embodiment this value is one for basic non-encoded operations and two or more for encoded operations. A scheduling MAC protocol is also used to announce and arbitrate network coding opportunities by indicating which packets (as characterized by their transmission slot) are to be encoded with each other.
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