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Zbl 0991.90015
Ahlswede, Rudolf; Cai, Ning; Li, Shuo-Yen Robert; Yeung, Raymond W.
Network information flow. (English)
[J] IEEE Trans. Inf. Theory 46, No.4, 1204-1216 (2000). ISSN 0018-9448

Summary: We introduce a new class of problems called network information flow which is inspired by computer network applications. Consider a point-to-point communication network on which a number of information sources are to be mulitcast to certain sets of destinations. We assume that the information sources are mutually independent. The problem is to characterize the admissible coding rate region. This model subsumes all previously studied models along the same line. In this paper, we study the problem with one information source, and we have obtained a simple characterization of the admissible coding rate region. Our result can be regarded as the max-flow min-cut theorem for network information flow. Contrary to one's intuition, our work reveals that it is in general not optimal to regard the information to be multicast as a ``fluid'' which can simply be routed or replicated. Rather, by employing coding at the nodes, which we refer to as network coding, bandwidth can in general be saved. This finding may have significant impact on future design of switching systems.

MSC 2000:: *90B10 Flows in networks
90B18 Communication networks
68M10 Computer networks

Keywords: diversity coding; multicast; network coding; switching; multiterminal source coding

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