Application of Network Coding in Emerging Communication Networks

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Linear network coding is a recent technique developed for improved network information transmission. From a general perspective, data packets originating from various sources and destined to different receivers are not transmitted on a packet by packet basis; instead multiple linear combinations of groups of packets are generated and sent. Typically, such linear combinations (encoded packets) involve multiplication with random coefficients and are implemented by intermediate nodes that act as forwarding relays between the sources and destinations. A receiver that correctly acquires a necessary number of linearly independent packet combinations is able to decode and keep the packets that were destined to it. Current research has shown that network coding may lead to improved network performance by means of increased data throughput and resilience to network attacks. However, network coding does lead to increased computational stress on network elements (an issue that can be resolved using modern powerful processors) as well as increased network complexity and scalability issues. ***Until recently there has been a clean separation between networks and the applications that use them. Applications produce packets that are sent over a simple socket API; the network delivers them. However, there are many occasions when applications can benefit from more direct interaction with the network; e.g., to observe more of the current network state and to obtain more control over the network behavior. Software Defined Networking (SDN) defines a network architecture that can provide access/programmability to the network control plane and thus enable the implementation of network coding.  ***The proposed research will concentrate on application of network coding in the following areas: a) broadcasting /multicasting information in wireless networks (with unreliable links) as well as in Software Defined Networks (SDN) and b) integration of network coding and compressive sensing in large wireless sensor networks (WSN). The focus of the research will be primarily on the networking performance; characterization of network stability, optimal stochastic control for optimizing certain performance measures (related to network throughput and delay) and comparison of performances between data systems using network coding versus traditional techniques used in existing networks. I will not focus on the development of optimized network codes (will assume simple random linear coding).***Despite the warm reception network coding has received in the research community recently, it has not been adopted at the industrial product development stage. Therefore, it is an excellent research area with promising practical implementations and expected deployment in the near future. I strongly believe that it is not only an excellent area for HQP training but also is of particular importance to the Canadian economy.**