Review of Rateless-Network-Coding-Based Packet Protection in Wireless Sensor Networks

Abstract

In recent times, there have been many developments in wireless sensor network (WSN) technologies using coding theory. Fast and efficient protection schemes for data transfer over the WSN are some of the issues in coding theory. This paper reviews the issues related to the application of the joint rateless-network coding (RNC) within the WSN in the context of packet protection. The RNC is a method in which any node in the network is allowed to encode and decode the transmitted data in order to construct a robust network, improve network throughput, and decrease delays. To the best of our knowledge, there has been no comprehensive discussion about RNC. To begin with, this paper briefly describes the concept of packet protection using network coding and rateless codes. We therefore discuss the applications of RNC for improving the capability of packet protection. Several works related to this issue are discussed. Finally, the paper concludes that the RNC-based packet protection scheme is able to improve the packet reception rate and suggests future studies to enhance the capability of RNC protection.