Secure network coding for multi-resolution wireless video streaming

1. A method for streaming video data in a network including a server node, a plurality of relay nodes and one or more receiver nodes, the method comprising:

performing a one-time key distribution between the source node and each of the one or more receiver nodes;

dividing the video data into more than one group of pictures (GoP), each of the more than one group of pictures having a predetermined time of duration;

for each group of pictures (GoP), generating at the source node an n×n lower-triangular matrix A, in which n is the number of layers in the GoP wherein matrix A is used for encoding at the source only and each non-zero entry of matrix A is an element a ij chosen uniformly at random from all non-zero elements of the field F q \{0};

dividing the GoP into a plurality of vectors b (1) . . . b (w) , each of the vectors having K symbols S 1 -S K in which the k th symbol of each vector belongs to a corresponding one of the n layers in the GoP and wherein the number of vectors created is computed as size of GoP/n;

encrypting at least one symbol of each vector b (i) for each use of the encoding matrix wherein the output of the operation of a stream cypher is denoted as a symbol P with a random key K as E(P, K );

applying the encoding matrix A successively to the information symbols to be sent to provide encoded information symbols which comprise a payload of one or more packets;

encrypting each line of a first matrix A with a corresponding layer key wherein the first matrix A corresponds to a locked coefficients matrix;

generating an n×n identity matrix corresponding to the unlocked coefficients wherein each of the one or more packets comprise a header and the payload and wherein the header comprises the locked and unlocked coefficients;

encoding the one or more packets in relay nodes in accordance with a random linear network coding (RLNC) protocol wherein algebraic coding is performed on unlocked coefficients, locked coefficients and payload; and the relay nodes identify the layer of a packet by looking at the first non-zero position in the unlocked coefficients, and packets are mixed with packets of the same or lower layers only.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein the time of duration is one second.

3. The method of claim 2 wherein performing algebraic coding on unlocked coefficients, locked coefficients and payload comprises performing algebraic coding indistinguishably on unlocked coefficients, locked coefficients and payload.

4. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

applying, via the receivers, Gaussian elimination following standard RLNC over the unlocked coefficients;

recovering the locked coefficients by decrypting each line of the matrix with the corresponding key; and

obtaining plaintext by a substitution process.

5. The method of claim 4 wherein the protected symbols are encrypted with the key for the lowest level in the network such that all legitimate participants in the protocol can decrypt the locked symbols.

6. The method of claim 5 further comprising:

sending a first line of the matrix unencrypted; and

starting the encryption of symbols at symbol 2 so that layer 1 is accessible by all nodes in the network.

7. The method of claim 1 wherein only a single key per layer is used for multi-resolution encryption and wherein the single key is shared among all receivers.

8. The method of claim 7 wherein encrypting comprises encrypting the base layer of the GoP in order to achieve maximum security.

9. The method of claim 8 wherein composing a payload of the packets includes forming the payload by concatenating all the vectors A(E(b 1 , K ), b 2 , . . . , b x ) T .

10. The method of claim 7 wherein encrypting each line of matrix A with a corresponding layer key comprises encrypting each line of matrix A with a corresponding layer key via the source.

11. The method of claim 7 wherein:

a packet from an nth layer corresponds to the nth line of matrix A such that that each packet of layer x includes packets from layers 1 , . . . , x−1, x.

12. The method of claim 11 further comprising:

sending a first line of the matrix unencrypted; and

starting the encryption of symbols at symbol 2 so that layer 1 is accessible by all nodes in the network.

13. The method of claim 12 wherein when performing a linear combination of one packet of layer x with a packet of layer y>x, the resulting packet belongs to layer y.

14. A system for streaming video data in a network, the system comprising:

(a) a server node for dividing the video data into more than one group of pictures (GoP), each of the more than one group of pictures having a predetermined time of duration wherein for each group of pictures (GoP), the source node generates an n×n lower-triangular matrix A, in which n is the number of layers in the GoP wherein matrix A is used for encoding at the source only and each non-zero entry of matrix A is an element a ij chosen uniformly at random from all non-zero elements of the field F q \{0} and the source divides the GoP into a plurality of vectors b (1) . . . b (w) , each of the vectors having K symbols S 1 -S K in which the k th symbol of each vector belongs to a corresponding one of the n layers in the GoP and wherein the number of vectors created is computed as size of GoP/n and wherein the source node encrypts at least one symbol of each vector b (i) for each use of the encoding matrix wherein the output of the operation of a stream cypher is denoted as a symbol P with a random key K as E(P,K) and applies the encoding matrix A successively to the information symbols to be sent to provide encoded information symbols which comprise a payload of one or more packets and the source node encrypts each line of a first matrix A with a corresponding layer key wherein the first matrix A corresponds to a locked coefficients matrix and generates an n×n identity matrix corresponding to the unlocked coefficients wherein each of the one or more packets comprise a header and the payload;

(b) a plurality of relay nodes; and

(c) one or more receiver nodes wherein the header comprises the locked and unlocked coefficients and encodes the one or more packets in the relay nodes in accordance with a random linear network coding (RLNC) protocol wherein algebraic coding is performed on unlocked coefficients, locked coefficients and payload and the relay nodes identify the layer of a packet by looking at the first nonzero position in the unlocked coefficients, and packets are mixed with packets of the some or lower layers only.