Network Coding Assisted Reliable Multicasting in Multi-Hop Wireless Networks with Two-Sources

In this paper, we present a reliable multicasting technique for multi-hop networks when packets from two of the sessions are transmitted simultaneously. Our main aim is to optimally exploit network coding (NC) advantage for efficient packet transmission. For each multicasting session, Multicast Least Cost Anypath Routing (MLCAR) scheme is applied to select the forwarder set. We define a coding window (CW) at the intermediate nodes and packets present in them are combined using NC. These network coded packets formed at a node are then communicated to its neighbouring node such that all the destinations of the respective multicasting session receive the desired packets. The average cost of multicasting is obtained for the proposed Two-Source Multicasting using Network Coding (TSMNC) scheme through extensive simulations. The results are compared with those obtained on considering the corresponding MLCAR approach. We observe that the considered scheme significantly improves the expected transmission count in a network.