Spatial diversity with network coding for ON/OFF satellite channels

In this letter, we investigate the advantages of network coding (NC) combined with spatial diversity (SD) in scenarios with multiple sources, a single satellite and a single receiver. Each link source-satellite is modeled as an ON/OFF channel. We show that our system matches a wide number of realistic scenarios, from Wireless Sensor Networks (WSN) to Delay Tolerant Networks (DTN). We propose employing random linear network coding (RLNC) together with SD to reduce the system outage probability with respect to traditional SD scheme. The theoretical expressions we derive and the simulations performed show that the proposed scheme significantly reduces the system outage probability for a wide range of channel conditions. Moreover, we also propose a method for obtaining the optimal code rate constrained to a maximum system outage probability, which can serve as system design methodology. © 2013 IEEE.