Modern 5G communication systems implement a combination of error correction and feedback-based erasure correction (HARQ/ARQ) as reliability mechanisms, which can introduce substantial delay and resource inefficiency. We propose forward erasure correction using network coding as a more delay-efficient alternative. We present a mathematical characterization of network delay for existing reliability mechanisms and network coding. Through simulations in a network slicing environment, we demonstrate that network coding not only improves the inorder delivery delay and goodput for the applications utilizing the slice, but also benefits other applications sharing the network by reducing resource utilization for the coded slice. Our analysis and characterization point towards ideas that require attention in the 6G standardization process. These findings highlight the need for greater modularity in protocol stack design that enables the integration of novel technologies in future wireless networks.

We present CHOKE, a novel code-based hybrid key-encapsulation mechanism (KEM) designed to securely and efficiently transmit multiple session keys simultaneously. By encoding n independent session keys with an individually secure linear code and encapsulating each resulting coded symbol using a separate KEM, CHOKE achieves computational individual security–each key remains secure as long as at least one underlying KEM remains unbroken. Compared to traditional serial or combiner-based hybrid schemes, CHOKE reduces computational and communication costs by an n-fold factor. Furthermore, we show that the communication cost of our construction is optimal under the requirement that each KEM must be used at least once.

This work presents the design and implementation of a real-time network coding system integrated into the IP layer of a 5G testbed, offering an alternative to conventional retransmission-based reliability mechanisms such as ARQ and HARQ. Using a netfilter-based packet interception framework, we inject forward erasure correction using Random Linear Network Coding (RLNC) into live traffic between a gNB and UE over a 3GPP RF link. We evaluate a block coding scheme, analyzing its impact on throughput, jitter, and resource usage. Results show that with appropriate code rate selection, RLNC can fully recover from packet losses using fewer transmissions than ARQ/HARQ and maintain a high throughput, particularly under moderate-to-high packet loss rates. These findings demonstrate that network coding can effectively replace retransmission-based reliability in future wireless systems, with the potential for more efficient resource utilization.

The use of Mutual Information (MI) as a measure to evaluate the efficiency of cryptosystems has an extensive history. However, estimating MI between unknown random variables in a high-dimensional space is challenging. Recent advances in machine learning have enabled progress in estimating MI using neural networks. This work presents a novel application of MI estimation in the field of cryptography. We propose applying this methodology directly to estimate the MI between plaintext and ciphertext in a chosen plaintext attack. The leaked information, if any, from the encryption could potentially be exploited by adversaries to compromise the computational security of the cryptosystem. We evaluate the efficiency of our approach by empirically analyzing multiple encryption schemes and baseline approaches. Furthermore, we extend the analysis to novel network coding-based cryptosystems that provide individual secrecy and study the relationship between information leakage and input distribution.

Network coding has been widely used as a technology to ensure efficient and reliable communication. The ability to recode packets at the intermediate nodes is a major benefit of network coding implementations. This allows the intermediate nodes to choose a different code rate and fine-tune the outgoing transmission to the channel conditions, decoupling the requirement for the source node to compensate for cumulative losses over a multi-hop network. Block network coding solutions already have practical recoders but an on-the-fly recoder for sliding window network coding has not been studied in detail. In this paper, we present the implementation details of a practical recoder for sliding window network coding for the first time along with a comprehensive performance analysis of a multi-hop network using the recoder. The sliding window recoder ensures that the network performs closest to its capacity and that each node can use its outgoing links efficiently.

Modeling realistic millimeter-wave (mmWave) channels is crucial to the study of ultra-reliable communication in next-generation wireless networks. MmWave provides significant gains over sub-6GHz communication but has very stringent requirements on channel conditions, since slight variations in the channel may result in significant performance degradation of mmWave communication. In this work, we present an experimental mmWave testbed and the mathematical modeling of the channels using the measurements collected from an outdoor testbed that complies with IEEE 802.11ad. We show how the model fits the reality and demonstrate the impact of adaptive causal network coding in mmWave real and simulated networks.

Network coding can be considered as a key enabler to achieve high throughput at low energy requirements in the 5G and beyond networks. Enabling the intermediate nodes to code and transmit the packets, network coding improves the resiliency against packet losses, but also introduce several security challenges in a non-trusted environment. A malicious intermediate user can pollute the information flow and such pollution attacks can significantly reduce the efficiency of the network if goes undetected. Integrity schemes with homomorphic properties are proposed to detect pollution attacks at the earliest. This paper proposes a bandwidth efficient, SDN-based integrity scheme suitable for the small cell environment. The proposed approach uses the secure control channel with the central controller for all security signalling and allows the participating nodes to process the packets verifying the integrity of received packets without any additional overhead on the communication channel. The proposed scheme is analyzed for the security against pollution attack, bandwidth efficiency, and scalability against the increasing number of users and varying coding parameters.

Future wireless communication systems will see the exponential growth in number of mobile devices and services. Quality of service (QoS) requirement is another aspect of the evolution of wireless communications and the explosive increase in number of devices, makes the fulfillment of this QoS requirement extremely challenging. Hyper dense small cell networks are an integral part of 5G environment. However, they can suffer from high interference and imbalanced distribution of users. Identifying weak users and helping them to achieve standard QoS requirement is a critical issue and challenge to handle. In this work, various technologies namely as joint transmission coordinated multi-point (JT-CoMP), non-orthogonal multiple access (NOMA), multi-user multiple-input multiple-output (MD-MIMO) and zero-forcing beamforming (ZFB) are used along with a cooperative coalition formation game. A static user scenario is developed in simulation environment, and a cooperative coalition game scenario with JT-CoMP is compared with No JT-CoMP, and results indicate the significant overall improvement over it.

Reliable communication over the wireless network with high throughput is a major target for the next generation communication technologies. Network coding can significantly improve the throughput efficiency of the network in a cooperative environment. The small cell technology and device to device communication make network coding an ideal candidate for improved performance in the fifth generation of communication networks. However, the security concerns associated with network coding needs to be addressed before any practical implementations. Pollution attacks are considered one of the most threatening attacks in the network coding environment. Although there are different integrity schemes to detect polluted packets, identifying the exact adversary in a network coding environment is a less addressed challenge. This paper proposes a scheme for identifying and locating adversaries in a dense, network coding enabled environment of mobile nodes. It also discusses a non-repudiation protocol that will prevent adversaries from deceiving the network.

As the validation and trials of fifth generation communication architectures are maturing, it becomes evident that efficient bandwidth utilization, security, and seamless cooperation among heterogeneous small cell access networks are among the vital requirements that the future wireless networks must satisfy. A potential candidate technology that can ensure bandwidth efficiency and high resilient communications, especially in the adverse wireless networking conditions is network coding. However, without a security strategy for protecting the data and the identity of the communication entities, network coding can be proved as a factor of severely degrading networking performance. Although several cryptography based schemes have been used over the recent years to ensure secure communications over network coding enabled networks, none was specifically designed to address the mobile small cell access network of the forthcoming fifth- generation paradigm. This paper proposes a secure network coding architecture for mobile small cells, which due to their unpredictable topology, render the most encryption key management schemes unsuitable and costly in terms of signaling. The proposed secure network coding architecture incorporates blockchains in an effort to ensure efficient key distribution and reduced signaling overhead.

The fifth generation of mobile networks is rapidly evolving, fueled by the ever-growing mobile traffic over recent years. Ultra-reliable and low latency provisioning of services with ranging contextual parameters mapped to highly fluctuating levels of quality of service and quality of user experience, render the optimum operation point of the future networks unsustainable. Network coding is emerging once more as a potential key enabler for optimizing bandwidth requirements and energy consumption in highly dense mobile network environments. Nonetheless, network coding deployments still need to consider security vulnerabilities and their countermeasures, before they can be adapted as part of the emerging mobile network deployments. This paper studies the performance of random linear network coding for wireless mobile networks with an emphasis on pollution attacks while proposing a novel blockchain based message authentication scheme in order to minimize delays and signalling costs.