Opportunistic scheduling for wireless network coding

This letter addresses a scheduling problem for wireless network coding (WNC). In our previous work, we have theoretically shown that the optimum number of nodes to be included into a network coded packet as well as its transmission rate depends on time varying link condition between a transmitting node and receiving nodes [1]. Based on this observation, this letter designs practical scheme which opportunistically selects scheduled nodes, packets to be coded and an employed modulation level according to time varying channel conditions and packet length. The numerical results show that the proposed opportunistic scheduling can improve the overall throughput as compared with non-opportunistic approach.