Network coding in Bluetooth networks

Abstract

This thesis discusses the possibility to apply network coding to a Bluetooth piconet. A protocol is proposed. This protocol is based on using deterministic linear network coding. The proposed alphabet size is binary, and the encoding equation is a trivial parity check code. By using the proposed code the encoding scale easily by the number of source nodes in the network, and do not require exchange of coding equations. The encoding and decoding is performed using bitwise XOR of the packets, and does not require any pre-computed look-up table, nor a great amount of dedicated memory to store intermediate packets. Finally, the encoding and decoding is not computational hard. Network coding applied as the proposed protocol is only beneficial to the master node and the communication from the master node to the slave nodes. Furthermore, it does not give any erroneous protection. Information exchanged in the network will be easier available to all the slave nodes in the network, and would require system to maintain confidentiality if this is required. However, this is trivially achieved in a Bluetooth network without network coding as well, and the same countermeasure should be enforced in all Bluetooth network. Not only when applying network coding. A theoretical study of the proposed algorithm shows a gain in throughput, and reduced power consumption. These features are appreciated by computational and power challenged nodes. This efficiency is maximized when there are few source nodes in the network, and large frame sizes (DH5). The theoretical study is verified by a simulator designed to this purpose.