The present invention relates to a method and a network coding node for resource allocation applicable to multi-directional network coding in an exchanging system. By estimating the number of bits per resource element (steps 402, 404) on uplink channels to a network coding node (200, 304, 504, 604), the number of resource elements for the sending on said uplinks is determined (step 410) to fully utilize the resources, i.e. such that link underutilization is avoided as well as incorporation of delays are avoided. The number of resource elements is decided such that the data transmitted to the network coding node is provided to end-nodes (302, 306, 502, 506, 602, 606) by sending one and the same representation of the data from a first and a second end-node, to said first and second end-nodes enabling extracting data originated from the differing end-node.