Research on correction algorithm of propagation error in wireless sensor network coding

Abstract

It is very difficult to deal with the problem of error correction in random network coding, especially when the number of errors is more than the min-cut of the network. We combine a small field with rank-metric codes to solve this problem in this paper. With a small finite field, original errors are compressed to propagated errors, and their number is smaller than the min-cut. Rank-metric codes are introduced to correct the propagated errors, while the minimum rank distance of the rank-metric code is hardly influenced by the small field. It is the first time to correct errors more than the min-cut in network coding with our method using a small field. This new error-correcting algorithm is very useful for the environment such as a wireless sensor network where network coding can be applied.