Analysis of Multi-Source Multi-Hop Cooperative Networks Employing Network Coding

In this paper, the performance of a multi-hop network is investigated in which M sources have independent information to be transmitted to a far off common destination. Linear network coding technique is used by the intermediate relays to transmit the combined information of M sources. Channel model includes Rayleigh fading and path loss. The multi-hop transmission process is modeled by a quasi-stationary Markov process, whereas the relay nodes use decode and forward (DF) mechanism at each hop. By finding the outage probability of each node and studying the properties of Markov process, the network coverage is analyzed for a given signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) margin.