Energy-Efficient Opportunistic Network Coding Algorithms for Wireless Networks

A Transmission Algorithm using Opportunistic Network Coding (TAONC) searches coding opportunities that minimize the amount of radio communication energy between a sender and multiple receivers in wireless networks. It calculates the energy gain of network coding at both a sender and receivers when a TAONC reduces communication energy by encoding multiple transmission packets into one. It considers the energy overheads, which are consumed by the TAONC and a Reception Algorithm using Opportunistic Network Coding (RAONC). We show that opportunistic network coding can effectively decrease the wireless communication energy even with consideration of the overheads. We study an appropriate algorithm complexity that optimizes the benefit of network coding with its overhead.