Polytope codes against adversaries in networks

Abstract

This paper investigates a network coding problem wherein an adversary controls a subset of nodes in the network of limited quantity but unknown location. This problem is shown to be more difficult than that of an adversary controlling a given number of edges in the network, in that linear codes are insufficient. To solve the node problem, the class of polytope codes is introduced. Polytope codes are constant composition codes operating over bounded polytopes in integer vector fields. The polytope structure creates additional complexity, but it induces properties on marginal distributions of code vectors so that validities of codewords can be checked by internal nodes of the network. It is shown that polytope codes achieve a cut-set bound for a class of planar networks. It is also shown that this cut-set bound is not always tight, and a tighter bound is given for an example network. © 2014 IEEE.