Binary Systematic Network Coding for Progressive Packet Decoding

We consider binary systematic network codes and investigate their capability of decoding a source message either in full or in part. We carry out a probability analysis, derive closed-form expressions for the decoding probability and show that systematic network coding outperforms conventional network coding. We also develop an algorithm based on Gaussian elimination that allows progressive decoding of source packets. Simulation results show that the proposed decoding algorithm can achieve the theoretical optimal performance. Furthermore, we demonstrate that systematic network codes equipped with the proposed algorithm are good candidates for progressive packet recovery owing to their overall decoding delay characteristics.