Impact of Network Coding on Age of Information

We consider the timeliness in delivering an update consisting of multiple message packets to multiple users via multicast transmissions with or without employing network coding where Age of Information (AoI) is adopted to quantify the timeliness of packets. The expressions for peak and average expected AoIs are analytically derived for both uncoded and network coded transmissions for both 2-user and generalized
$k$
-users scenarios where the computational burden stemming from network coding is taken into account. The behavioral analyses of a number of network parameters are investigated, and the effect of data rate and computational capacity of nodes is analyzed. Simulations are performed for various Internet of Things (IoT) deployments, and the analyses suggest that the use of network coding for multicast transmissions can result in substantial AoI improvements, with the exception of scenarios in which sensors have extremely limited computational capabilities.