Probabilistic Network Coding Based on Buyer/Seller Games for Retransmissions in Wireless Networks

Abstract

In wireless networks, retransmissions are used by senders to recover lost packets. The conventional retransmission schemes usually retransmit only one lost packet each time, resulting in a low retransmission efficiency. However, using broadcasting nature of a wireless channel with network coding (NC), we can recover more than one lost packet per transmission. Different from single-sender multiple-receiver wireless networks as considered in the existing works, this paper explores the ways to use NC for retransmissions in multiple-sender multiple-receiver scenarios. In addition, this paper also aims to investigate the advantages and shortcomings of using NC in retransmissions. In order to maximize the gain and minimize the impact in NC retransmissions, a probabilistic network coding retransmission (PNCR) scheme is proposed, where a buyer/seller game-theoretic approach is adopted to optimize the performance. The experimental results confirm the effectiveness of the PNCR scheme.