Performance analysis of random linear network coding in two-source single-relay networks

This paper considers the multiple-access relay channel in a setting where two source nodes transmit packets to a destination node, both directly and via a relay node, over packet erasure channels. Intra-session network coding is used at the source nodes and inter-session network coding is employed at the relay node to combine the recovered source packets of both source nodes. In this work, we investigate the performance of the network-coded system in terms of the probability that the destination node will successfully recover the source packets of the two source nodes. We build our analysis on fundamental probability expressions for random matrices over finite fields and we derive upper bounds on the system performance for the case of systematic and non-systematic network coding. Simulation results show that the upper bounds are very tight and accurately predict the decoding probability at the destination node. Our analysis also exposes the clear benefits of systematic network coding at the source nodes compared to non-systematic transmission.