Capacity of a Class of Multicast Tree Networks

Abstract

In this paper, we characterize the capacity of a new class of discrete memoryless multicast networks having a tree topology. For achievability, a novel coding scheme is constructed where some relays employ a combination of decode-and-forward and compress-and-forward and the other relays perform a random binning such that codebook constructions and relay operations are independent for each node and do not depend on the network topology. For converse, a new technique of iteratively manipulating inequalities exploiting the tree topology is used. This class of multicast tree networks includes the class of diamond networks studied by Kang and Ulukus as a special case.