Hybrid Serial Concatenated Network Codes for Burst Erasure Channels

Information paths in current communication networks can often be modelled by set of serial links interconnected by intermediate nodes. These kind of scenarios are called line networks. If the links between nodes experience connection problems, burst erasures of information can happen. In this article, hybrid serial concatenated network codes are proposed, which consist in the serial concatenation of a 'classical' coding scheme and a network code. A novel way to decrease complexity of this approach is that the 'classical' coding scheme is not performed on a link level. The new coding schemes improve performance of the communications in line networks in terms of error-correcting capability. The evaluations involve MATLAB simulations and analytical analysis.