Capacity of a Class of Linear Binary Field Multisource Relay Networks

In this paper, we study a layered linear binary field network with time-varying channels, which is a simplified model reflecting broadcast, interference, and fading natures of wireless communications. We observe that fading can play an important role in mitigating interuser interference effectively for both single-hop and multihop networks. We propose new coding schemes with randomized ergodic channel pairing, which exploit such channel variations, and derive their achievable ergodic rates. By comparing them with the cut-set upper bound, the capacity region of single-hop networks and the sum capacity of multihop networks are characterized for some classes of channel distributions and network topologies.