Patent ID: 8792539

Claim:
A communication node adapted to perform multiplicative network coding, the communication node comprising: an encoder to perform an encoding operation; a decoder to perform a decoding operation; where: said encoder is configured to multiply two or more signals that bear information to form a composite signal that comprises multiplicatively network coded information, where the two or more signals that bear information are each defined by a respective equation having a form of s k (n)=e jφ k (n) that has a variable n and a variable k, and where the variable n is an index for a symbol carrying a piece of the information and the variable k is an index for a full set of the information to which the signal is associated, wherein the information is an information flow comprising a set of related information pieces of data, voice, and/or multimedia communication; and said decoder is configured to multiply a received composite signal by the complex conjugate of at least one of the two or more signals that bear information, wherein the received composite signal comprises multiplicatively network coded information; and the communication node is configured to at least partially perform multiplicative-network-coding encoding for a sending communication mode with the encoding operation; and the communication node is configured to at least partially perform multiplicative-network-coding decoding for a receiving communication mode with the decoding operation.