Subset Codes for Packet Networks

Abstract: In this paper, we present a coding-theoretic framework for message transmission over packet-switched networks. Network is modeled as a channel which can induce packet errors, deletions, insertions, and out of order delivery of packets. The proposed approach can be viewed as an extension of the one introduced by Koetter and Kschischang for networks based on random linear network coding. Namely, while their framework is based on subspace codes and designed for networks in which network nodes perform random linear combining of the packets, ours is based on the so-called subset codes, and is designed for networks employing routing in network nodes.