OFC-UF: Online Fountain Codes with Undecoded Component Feedback for Underwater Acoustic Networks

Underwater acoustic networks(UANs) face the challenges of the high probability of packet transmission error, random link interruption, limited energy, and long transmission delay. Due to the low overhead, online feedback, and rateless characteristics, online fountain codes have become an important technical approach for the reliable transmission of underwater acoustic networks. In the completion phase of online fountain codes, excessive feedback times lead to long transmission delays. Therefore, an online fountain code based on undecoded component feedback (OFC-UF) is proposed to reduce the times of feedback. This method ensures that fountain codes can reduce transmission delay and feedback overhead while ensuring reliable transmission of underwater acoustic networks. The simulation results show that OFC-UF can bring better performance of transmission delay.