Degree distribution of XORed fountain codes: Theoretical derivation and analysis

Abstract

In this work, we focus on the use of network coding in a wireless sensor network where data is already encoded at the source node with fountain codes, in particular LT or Raptor codes. These codes have a specific degree distribution to follow in order to obtain an efficient decoding process. However, adding a layer of network coding on such packets triggers a distorsion of the degree distribution. Consequently, the packet overhead needed for the decoding process can grow significantly.