Distributed computing has become a common approach for large-scale computation tasks due to benefits such as high reliability, scalability, computation speed, and cost-effectiveness. However, distributed computing faces critical issues related to communication load and straggler effects. In particular, computing nodes need to exchange intermediate results with each other in order to calculate the final result, and this significantly increases communication overheads. Furthermore, a distributed computing network may include straggling nodes that run intermittently slower. This results in a longer overall time needed to execute the computation tasks, thereby limiting the performance of distributed computing. To address these issues, coded distributed computing (CDC), i.e., a combination of coding theoretic techniques and distributed computing, has been recently proposed as a promising solution. Coding theoretic techniques have proved effective in WiFi and cellular systems to deal with channel noise. Therefore, CDC may significantly reduce communication load, alleviate the effects of stragglers, provide fault-tolerance, privacy and security. In this survey, we first introduce the fundamentals of CDC, followed by basic CDC schemes. Then, we review and analyze a number of CDC approaches proposed to reduce the communication costs, mitigate the straggler effects, and guarantee privacy and security. Furthermore, we present and discuss applications of CDC in modern computer networks. Finally, we highlight important challenges and promising research directions related to CDC.

中文翻译：

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编码分布式计算的全面调查：基础知识、挑战和网络应用


由于高可靠性、可扩展性、计算速度和成本效益等优点，分布式计算已成为大规模计算任务的常用方法。然而，分布式计算面临着与通信负载和落后者效应相关的关键问题。特别是，计算节点需要相互交换中间结果才能计算出最终结果，这大大增加了通信开销。此外，分布式计算网络可能包括间歇性运行速度较慢的散乱节点。这导致执行计算任务所需的总时间更长，从而限制了分布式计算的性能。为了解决这些问题，编码分布式计算（CDC），即编码理论技术和分布式计算的结合，最近被提出作为一种有前景的解决方案。编码理论技术已被证明在 WiFi 和蜂窝系统中能够有效处理信道噪声。因此，CDC可以显着减少通信负载，减轻掉队者的影响，提供容错、隐私和安全性。在本次调查中，我们首先介绍CDC的基本原理，然后介绍基本的CDC方案。然后，我们回顾和分析了一些旨在降低通信成本、减轻掉队效应并保证隐私和安全的 CDC 方法。此外，我们还介绍并讨论了 CDC 在现代计算机网络中的应用。最后，我们强调了与 CDC 相关的重要挑战和有前途的研究方向。