Topology-aware space-time network coding

Space-Time Network Coding (STNC) is a time division multiple access (TDMA)-based scheme that combines network coding and space-time coding by allowing relays to combine the information received from different sources during the transmission phase and to forward the combined signal to a destination in the relaying phase. However, STNC schemes require all the relays to overhear the signal transmitted from all the sources in the network and also a large number of time-slots to achieve full diversity in a multipoint-to-multipoint transmission, which is particularly challenging for large cellular networks. In this paper, we exploit a basic knowledge of the network topology, i.e. the knowledge of the base stations overheard by other base stations and users, to reduce drastically the number of time-slots. Our results show that our scheme is able to increase the spectral efficiency with a marginal decrease of the spatial diversity compared to traditional STNC.