Proof-of-Concept of Bi-directional Broadcast Communication

Abstract: From a theoretical perspective, the bi-directional broadcast communication which follows from the network coding idea has been studied extensively in the literature. However, despite the potential gain, not much practical work has been realized. In this thesis, we designed and implemented the traditional bi-directional relaying with 4-phases and the bi-directional communication with XOR network coding with 3-phases schemes using Wireless Open Access Research Platform (WARP) boards. Our experimental results show that when we have low packet error rate, there is an approximately 30% throughput gain in the bi-directional communication with network coding. However, when the link quality degrades, the bene t of the bi-directional communication with network coding scheme becomes less apparent and the traditional bi-directional relaying tends to perform better. It is observed that the performance relates directly to the packet-error rate of the weakest node-relay link.