Reducing delay with coding in (mobile) multi-agent information transfer

Coding has traditionally been used at the physical layer in communication networks to prevent and correct errors and erasures incurred in transmission of data. In the past decade, other benefits of coding have been demonstrated, in particular in environments with unpredictable dynamics and limited resources. In this paper, we are concerned with using coding to reduce delay in communications environments as seemingly diverse as mobile, ad hoc, wireless networks and P2P content distribution networks. We show that that delay in different communication scenarios may come from different reasons, but be statistically similar, and can, therefore, be addressed in the same manner by coding.