On Networks with Side Information

In this paper, the authors generalize the lossless coded side information problem from the three-node network of Ahlswede and Korner to more general network scenarios. They derive inner and outer bounds on the achievable rate region in the general network scenario and show that they are tight for some families of networks. Their approach demonstrates how solutions to canonical source coding problems can be used to derive bounds for more complex networks and reveals an interesting connection between networks with side information, successive refinement, and network coding.