Patent ID: 8817808

Claim:
A method for implementing Multiple Input Multiple Output (MIMO) based network coding at an intermediate node in a wireless communication system, the wireless communication system including an intermediate node, a first node and a second node, the intermediate node including a plurality of antennas, comprising: receiving, by the intermediate node, first data from the first node; receiving, by the intermediate node, second data from the second node; storing the first data in a first queue and storing the second data in a second queue; performing network coding on at least a portion of the first data from the first queue and at least a portion of the second data from the second queue using a network coding scheme to produce network coded information; transmitting, by the intermediate node, the network coded information to the first node and second node using multi-user MIMO; scheduling transmissions of packets from the first node and second node to the intermediate node, wherein a higher priority for said scheduling is given to the first node or the second node based on whichever one of the first queue and the second queue has a shorter queue length.