Network coding over a MANET proactive link state routing protocol and TDMA scheduling

Network coding has been studied to enhance reliability and robustness of communications in lossy environments such as high mobile tactical situations. Previous network coding research has exploited on-demand multipath routing, multicasting, or broadcasting to leverage spatial redundancy and improve communication performance. However, one should not ignore proactive routing protocols such as link state protocol OSPF, since the latter is the prevailing protocol used in tactical field communications. This paper proposes a new routing and network coding strategy based on a link state protocol. This strategy extends the shortest path generated by the link state algorithm to multipath routing; thus provides the spatial redundancy required for efficient network coding. The strategy is simple. It can be applied to any link state routing protocol and it greatly improves packet delivery performance in disruptive environments. This paper provides protocol design, implementation and performance evaluation of this strategy, followed by extensive validation via simulation.