A directed acyclic network is considered where all the terminals need to recover the sum of the symbols generated at all the sources. We call such a network a sum-network. It is shown that there exists a solvably (and linear solvably) equivalent sumnetwork for any multiple-unicast network, and thus for any directed acyclic communication network. It is also shown that there exists a linear solvably equivalent multiple-unicast network for every sum-network. It is shown that for any set of polynomials having integer coefficients, there exists a sum-network which is scalar linear solvable over a finite field F if and only if the polynomials have a common root in F . For any finite or cofinite set of prime numbers, a network is constructed which has a vector linear solution of any length if and only if the characteristic of the alphabet field is in the given set. The insufficiency of linear network coding and unachievability of the network coding capacity are proved for sum-networks by using similar known results for communication networks. Under fractional vector linear network coding, a sum-network and its reverse network are shown to be equivalent. However, under non-linear coding, it is shown that there exists a solvable sum-network whose reverse network is not solvable.
We note, as presented by Rai and Dey in REF , that the task of finding a network coding scheme in the setting of sum-networks is strongly connected to the problem of finding a network coding solution in the multiple-unicast communication setting.
On network coding for sum-networks
Mathematics Computer Science