The throughput of a wireless network can be boosted by network coding (NC). The present invention combines NC-aware routing and TDMA-based MAC protocol for energy-efficient design in the wireless network, and provides a method thereof. An optimization model, which is a minimum energy consumption model (MECM), is formulated for minimizing the energy consumption for accomplishing a set of flow transmissions. In particular, based on a set of user traffic-flow demands, a NC-aware traffic-flow assignment that minimizes a total energy consumption of packets delivering to meet the user traffic-flow demands is determined. Thereafter, given the optimal flow assignment, a minimum timeslots model (MTM) which leads to a TDMA-based scheduling strategy at the MAC layer is developed. The MTM is to minimize the total number of timeslots required for transmission under a condition that the NC-aware traffic-flow assignment as already determined is accomplishable.