Critical graphs in index coding

In this paper we define critical graphs as minimal graphs that support a given set of rates for the index coding problem, and study them for both the one-shot and asymptotic setups. For the case of equal rates, we find the critical graph with minimum number of edges for both one-shot and asymptotic cases. For the general case of possibly distinct rates, we show that for one-shot and asymptotic linear index coding, as well as asymptotic non-linear index coding, each critical graph is a union of disjoint strongly connected subgraphs (USCS). On the other hand, we identify a non-USCS critical graph for a one-shot non-linear index coding problem. In addition, we show that the capacity region of the index coding associated with a given graph can be obtained by time-sharing over valid index codes for its strongly connected components.