  The capacity region of the index coding problem is characterized through the
notion of confusion graph and its fractional chromatic number. Based on this
multiletter characterization, several structural properties of the capacity
region are established, some of which are already noted by Tahmasbi, Shahrasbi,
and Gohari, but proved here with simple and more direct graph-theoretic
arguments. In particular, the capacity region of a given index coding problem
is shown to be simple functionals of the capacity regions of smaller
subproblems when the interaction between the subproblems is none, one-way, or
complete.
