Network and Traffic Design Aspects in Network-Coding-Enabled Wireless Networks

Practical experience of using opportunistic network coding has already been gained in several real network deployments, indicating the influence of some of the fundamental characteristics of the network and the traffic load. However, these aspects have not been systematically investigated in the scope of the construction of efficient and robust large-scale network-coding-enabled wireless mesh networks. In this paper we focus on these aspects using an example of two opportunistic networkcoding procedures: the well-known COPE and the Bearing Opportunistic Network coding (BON). In addition, the design aspects for network-coding-enabled wireless mesh networks and applications are discussed. We have shown that opportunistic network coding can improve the performance of different networks and supported applications in terms of throughput, delay and jitter, although the benefits are not significant in all the cases. Thus, the use of opportunistic network coding should be considered upfront during the wireless network design phase in order to obtain the greatest benefits.