Hybrid ARQ-random network coding for wireless media streaming

Abstract

This paper proposes hybrid ARQ-random network coding frameworks for real-time media broadcast over single-hop wireless networks. We model the wireless channel as a packet erasure channel and our proposed schemes aim at minimizing the packet erasure rate in order to enhance the media quality at receivers. We consider two forms of random network coding: Uniform Random Network Coding (URNC) and Hierarchical Random Network Coding (HRNC) in combination with a number of packet scheduling policies based on a limited number of feedbacks from receivers. Our simulation results show that the hybrid frameworks can improve the quality of media applications significantly compared with the conventional scheme without using network coding.