Application of network coding to IEEE 802.16j mobile multi-hop relay network for throughput enhancement

We observe simultaneous transmission of relay stations (RSs) allowed in current IEEE 802.16j draft standard for multi-hop relay networks may involve severe interference among the RSs, hence leading to throughput degradation. Allowing only 1/3 of the RSs to simultaneously transmit instead of 1/2 RSs as in the current draft standard reduces the interference but results in reduced throughput. To remedy this problem, we devise schemes to incorporate network coding at link-layer level (decode-and-forward) into the simultaneous transmission of RSs. Data movement is rearranged to maximize coding gain. Formula is derived to dictate exact movement of packets traveling between base station (BS) and mobile stations (MSs) via intermediate RSs. The frame structure in the current IEEE 802.16j draft standard does not allow broadcast needed for network coding. We devise a new frame structure which supports the broadcast. A new R-MAP (pointers to the burst data) is introduced to implement the broadcast. Since our new frame structure is used only for BS to RS or RS to RS communication, our schemes retain backward compatibility with legacy MSs based on IEEE 802.16e standard. Simulation based on simple configuration of RSs shows considerable improvement in terms of system throughput and round trip delay. For a 4-hop relay network with 1 BS and 4 RSs with symmetric traffic in uplink (UL) and downlink (DL), throughput is improved by 49% in DL and by 84% in UL traffic compared with IEEE 802.16j draft standard under the assumption that omni-directional antennae are used in BS and RSs.