Constrained Space Information Flow

Abstract

Space Information Flow (SIF), also known as Space Network Coding, is a new research paradigm which studies network coding in Euclidean space, and it is different with Network Information Flow proposed by Ahlswede et al. This paper focuses on the problem of Constrained Space Information Flow (CSIF), which aims to find a min-cost multicast network in 2-D Euclidean space under the constraint on the number of relay nodes to be used. We propose a new polynomial-time heuristic algorithm that combines Delaunay triangulation and linear programming techniques to solve the problem. Delaunay triangulation is used to generate several candidate relay nodes, after which linear programming is applied to choose the optimal relay nodes and to compute their connection links with the terminal nodes. The simulation results shows the effectiveness of the proposed algorithm.