Combination network coding: Alphabet size and zigzag decoding

Combination network coding can be regarded as a generalization of Maximum Distance Separable (MDS) code. An existing bound on the required alphabet size for MDS code is generalized for combination network coding. Besides, a class of combination network code called Zigzag-Decodable (ZD) code is considered. It involves only exclusive-OR and bit-shifting operations and can be decoded by a fast algorithm called zigzag decoding. It was proved that the ZD code has lower encoding and decoding complexities than other existing codes, at the expense of slight rate loss.