Coding for a network coded fountain

Batched sparse (BATS) codes are proposed for transmitting a collection of packets through communication networks employing linear network coding. BATS codes generalize fountain codes and preserve the properties such as ratelessness and low encoding/decoding complexity. Moreover, the buffer size and the computation capability of the intermediate network nodes required to apply BATS codes are independent of the number of packets for transmission. It is verified theoretically for certain cases and demonstrated numerically for the general cases that BATS codes achieve rates very close to the capacity of linear operator channels.