The exponential growth of the mobile devices market, not only smartphones, but also tablets, laptops or wearables, poses a serious challenge for 5G communications, that are expected to smartly connect “any one, any device, anywhere” providing extensive high-rate connectivity and a seamless user. In this perspective, Network Coding is a promising solution for future heterogenous networks as it has been shown to provide increased throughput, security, and robustness for the transmission of data through the network. 

In this speech, the evolution towards a code centric network is envisioned and the basics of network coding are discussed, with clarifying examples. Applications to cloud storage is considered as well, and demonstrated to be of interest for improved reliability, cost-effectiveness and security.