Research Article

The Price of Waiting for a Coding Opportunity: Age of Information in Half-Duplex Two-Way Relaying

Volume: 17 Number: 3 October 18, 2026
TR EN

The Price of Waiting for a Coding Opportunity: Age of Information in Half-Duplex Two-Way Relaying

Abstract

A relay that combines two opposing traffic flows with an exclusive or operation can reduce the number of broadcasts, but only when updates from both flows are simultaneously available. This creates a scheduling dilemma between immediate forwarding and waiting for a coding partner. Prior work has studied this decision under delay, throughput, and transmission cost objectives. We revisit it under age of information, where waiting has different consequences. A relay that buffers only the freshest update of each flow may replace a held update with a newer one while waiting, which limits the freshness penalty. In addition, a half duplex relay cannot receive while broadcasting, so each avoided uncoded transmission creates another reception opportunity. We formulate a slotted two way relay network with a bounded waiting threshold and derive the exact average age of information of both flows using a finite discrete time stochastic hybrid system. Under light symmetric traffic the greedy policy remains optimal, whereas sufficiently asymmetric traffic produces a pronounced U shaped dependence with a finite positive optimum. Across the asymmetric parameter grid, waiting reduces sum age of information by up to 36.7 percent and the age of the lightly loaded flow by up to 42.0 percent. In a representative case, the transmission frequency is reduced by a factor of 3.2. Under a common broadcast erasure model, the gain reaches 42.5 percent when half of all broadcasts are lost.

Keywords

References

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Details

Primary Language

English

Subjects

Electrical Engineering (Other)

Journal Section

Research Article

Publication Date

October 18, 2026

Submission Date

August 12, 2026

Acceptance Date

September 17, 2026

Published in Issue

Year 2026 Volume: 17 Number: 3

APA
Köse, A. (2026). The Price of Waiting for a Coding Opportunity: Age of Information in Half-Duplex Two-Way Relaying. Dicle Üniversitesi Mühendislik Fakültesi Mühendislik Dergisi, 17(3). https://doi.org/10.24012/dumf.2016601
AMA
1.Köse A. The Price of Waiting for a Coding Opportunity: Age of Information in Half-Duplex Two-Way Relaying. DUJE. 2026;17(3). doi:10.24012/dumf.2016601
Chicago
Köse, Alper. 2026. “The Price of Waiting for a Coding Opportunity: Age of Information in Half-Duplex Two-Way Relaying”. Dicle Üniversitesi Mühendislik Fakültesi Mühendislik Dergisi 17 (3). https://doi.org/10.24012/dumf.2016601.
EndNote
Köse A (October 1, 2026) The Price of Waiting for a Coding Opportunity: Age of Information in Half-Duplex Two-Way Relaying. Dicle Üniversitesi Mühendislik Fakültesi Mühendislik Dergisi 17 3
IEEE
[1]A. Köse, “The Price of Waiting for a Coding Opportunity: Age of Information in Half-Duplex Two-Way Relaying”, DUJE, vol. 17, no. 3, Oct. 2026, doi: 10.24012/dumf.2016601.
ISNAD
Köse, Alper. “The Price of Waiting for a Coding Opportunity: Age of Information in Half-Duplex Two-Way Relaying”. Dicle Üniversitesi Mühendislik Fakültesi Mühendislik Dergisi 17/3 (October 1, 2026). https://doi.org/10.24012/dumf.2016601.
JAMA
1.Köse A. The Price of Waiting for a Coding Opportunity: Age of Information in Half-Duplex Two-Way Relaying. DUJE. 2026;17. doi:10.24012/dumf.2016601.
MLA
Köse, Alper. “The Price of Waiting for a Coding Opportunity: Age of Information in Half-Duplex Two-Way Relaying”. Dicle Üniversitesi Mühendislik Fakültesi Mühendislik Dergisi, vol. 17, no. 3, Oct. 2026, doi:10.24012/dumf.2016601.
Vancouver
1.Alper Köse. The Price of Waiting for a Coding Opportunity: Age of Information in Half-Duplex Two-Way Relaying. DUJE. 2026 Oct. 1;17(3). doi:10.24012/dumf.2016601