A High-Throughput Overlay Multicast Infrastructure with Network Coding

Network coding has been recently proposed in information theory as a new dimension of the information multicast problem that helps achieve optimal transmission rate or cost. End hosts in overlay networks are natural candidates to perform network coding, due to its available computational capabilities. In this paper, we seek to bring theoretical advances in network coding to the practice of high-throughput multicast in overlay networks. We have completed the first real implementation of network coding in end hosts, as well as decentralized algorithms to construct the routing strategies and to perform random code assignment. Our experiences suggest that approaching maximum throughput with network coding is not only theoretically sound, but also practically promising. We also present a number of unique challenges in designing and realizing coded data dissemination, and corresponding solution techniques to address them.

• Type: Conference
• Year: 2005
• Where: IWQOS
• Authors: Mea Wang, Zongpeng Li, Baochun Li
• Keywords: Communications, End Hosts, IWQOS 2005, Network Coding, Overlay Networks