Short-message quantize-forward network coding

Recent work for single-relay channels shows that quantize-forward (QF) with long-message encoding achieves the same reliable rates as compress-forward (CF) with short-message encoding. It is shown that short-message QF with backward or pipelined (sliding-window) decoding also achieves the same rates. Similarly, for many relays and sources, short-message QF with backward decoding achieves the same rates as long-message QF. Several practical advantages of short-message encoding are pointed out, e.g., reduced delay and simpler modulation. Furthermore, short-message encoding lets relays use decode-forward (DF) if their channel quality is good, thereby enabling multi-input, multi-output (MIMO) gains that are not possible with long-message encoding. Finally, one may combine the advantages of long- and short-message encoding by hashing a long message to short messages.