Linear Physical-Layer Network Coding for 5G Radio Access Networks

We consider the application of linear physical layer network coding to next generation radio access networks ( LPNC-RAN). We introduce a linear physical layer network coding scheme based on binary matrices, and illustrate its application to a simple example network topology. We compare this to benchmark schemes based on coordinated multipoint ( CoMP), and show that while its performance is poorer than ideal CoMP with unlimited backhaul, it is significantly better than a practical CoMP scheme, while also giving rise to much lower backhaul load.