Network coding resources optimization with transmission delay constraint in multicast networks

Minimizing network coding resources of multicast networks,such as the number of coding nodes or links,has been proved to be NP-hard,and taking propagation delay into account makes the problem more complicated.To resolve this optimal problem,an integer encoding routing-based genetic algorithm (REGA) is presented to map the optimization problem into a genetic algorithm (GA) framework.Moreover,to speed up the search process of the algorithm,an efficient local search procedure which can reduce the searching space size is designed for searching the feasible solution.Compared with the binary link state encoding representation genetic algorithm (BLSGA),the chromosome length of REGA is shorter and just depends on the number of sinks.Simulation results show the advantages of the algorithm in terms of getting the optimal solution and algorithmic convergence speed.