Joint delay and energy minimization for instantly decodable network coding

Abstract

In this paper, we investigate the cooperative data exchange (CDE) using instantly decodable network coding (IDNC) across the wireless nodes. We model the problem using the cooperative game theory in partition form. Unlike most of existing works concerning IDNC, we focus not only on the decoding delay, but also the consumed energy in order to increase the network lifetime. A distributed merge-and-split algorithm is proposed to form coalitions that maximize their utilities in terms of energy consumption and delay experienced by all the receivers. Indeed, the proposed algorithm enables the wireless nodes to self-organize into independent disjoint coalitions and the resulting clustered network structure is characterized through stability notion. Simulation results show that the cooperation between nodes not only reduces the energy consumption, but also the IDNC completion time. Note also that the proposed solution reduces the complexity of the CDE which makes the network more scalable and more reliable.