Scheduling for Network Coded Multicast: A Conflict Graph Formulation

Consider network coded multicast traffic over a wireless network in the bandwidth limited regime. We formulate the joint medium access and subgraph optimization problem by means of a graphical conflict model. The nature of network coded flows is not captured by classical link-based scheduling and therefore requires a novel approach based on conflicting hyperarcs. By means of simulations, we evaluate the performance of our algorithm and conclude that it significantly outperforms existing scheduling techniques.