Network coding has recently emerged as an effective method to go beyond
traditional route-based networks.
While network coding allows certain traffic matrices that are infeasible
with traditional routing to be achievable, it is possible that its main
benefits for networking may lie mainly in the way that network coding allows
for efficient, distributed operation. We overview recent results in the area
of distributed network coding and discuss network coding for cost
minimization and erasure handling, with an emphasis on wireless networks.
Distributed network coding yields a reduction in cost, say energy use in a
wireless context, and to network capacity-achieving performance in erasure
settings, such as the ones associated with wireless channels. We discuss the
possible implications for wireless networks and present some open problems
in the area.
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