Joint Random Linear Network Coding and Convolutional Code with Interleaving for Multihop Wireless Network

Error control techniques are designed to ensure reliable data transfer over unreliable communication channels that are frequently subjected to channel errors. In this paper, the effect of applying a convolution code to the Scattered Random Network Coding (SRNC) scheme over a multi-hop wireless channel was studied. An interleaver was implemented for bit scattering in the SRNC with the purpose of dividing the encoded data into protected blocks and vulnerable blocks to achieve error diversity in one modulation symbol while randomising errored bits in both blocks. By combining the interleaver with the convolution encoder, the network decoder in the receiver would have enough number of correctly received network coded blocks to perform the decoding process efficiently. Extensive simulations were carried out to study the performance of three systems: 1) SRNC with convolutional encoding; 2) SRNC; and 3) A system without convolutional encoding nor interleaving. Simulation results in terms of block error rate for a 2-hop wireless transmission scenario over an Additive White Gaussian Noise (AWGN) channel were presented. Results showed that the system with interleaving and convolutional code achieved better performance with coding gain of at least 1.29 dB and 2.08 dB on average when the block error rate is 0.01 when compared with system II and system III respectively.