  In this paper, a comprehensive study of packet-based instantly decodable
network coding (IDNC) for single-hop wireless broadcast is presented. The
optimal IDNC solution in terms of throughput is proposed and its packet
decoding delay performance is investigated. Lower and upper bounds on the
achievable throughput and decoding delay performance of IDNC are derived and
assessed through extensive simulations. Furthermore, the impact of receivers'
feedback frequency on the performance of IDNC is studied and optimal IDNC
solutions are proposed for scenarios where receivers' feedback is only
available after and IDNC round, composed of several coded transmissions.
However, since finding these IDNC optimal solutions is computational complex,
we further propose simple yet efficient heuristic IDNC algorithms. The impact
of system settings and parameters such as channel erasure probability, feedback
frequency, and the number of receivers is also investigated and simple
guidelines for practical implementations of IDNC are proposed.
