A cross layer method for interference cancellation and network coding in wireless networks

Multi-hop wireless networks are expected to play an important role in the next-generation wireless systems. One of the central problems in such networks is the network capacity. This paper presents a novel cross layer method for interference cancellation and network coding, which significantly increases the capacity of multi-hop wireless networks. We decompose the multi-hop network into a cell-like sub-network, which we refer to as a wireless switching network. In the proposed approach, multiple nodes, each with its self-information, can communicate via relay nodes. The nodes' self information can then be utilized to cancel the multiuser interference and enable network coding. We shall derive the capacity regions of two cross layer strategies, and show that they are larger than that of the traditional broadcast channel. © 2006 IEEE