Hybrid Network-Erasure Coding Protection of Multi-Source, Multi-Sink Multicast Sessions in WSNs

In this paper, we consider the problem of providing fault tolerant operation for multicast networks with multiple sources, e.g., sensors, and delivering data to a pre-defined set of destinations, e.g., sinks. We propose an algorithm that combines network and erasure coding to provide resilience against a predefined number of link failures. For sources unable to meet the flow constraints, support is provided at the cost of reduced throughput and if required, reduced protection. The necessary and sufficient flow conditions for network resource verification are proved. We also prove that the field size for coding coefficients is bounded by the amount of protection offered for erasure coding and equal to 2 for network coding.