Multicasting correlated multi-source to multi-sink over a network

Abstract

The problem of network coding with multicast of a single source to multisink has first been studied by Ahlswede, Cai, Li and Yeung in 2000, in which they have established the celebrated max-flow mini-cut theorem on non-physical information flow over a network of independent channels. On the other hand, in 1980, Han has studied the case with correlated multisource and a single sink from the viewpoint of polymatroidal functions in which a necessary and sufficient condition has been demonstrated for reliable transmission over the network. This paper presents an attempt to unify both cases, which leads to establish a necessary and sufficient condition for reliable transmission over a network multicasting correlated multisource to multisink. Here, the problem of separation of source coding and channel coding is also discussed.