Performance Evaluation of a Cooperative Scheme for Wireless Networks

It has been shown that the cooperation among nodes can improve the performance of a network under certain considerations. So far, research focus has been mainly put on cooperation and not on the coordination required to obtain this cooperation. In this paper we discuss how the MAC layer plays a key role in determining the effectiveness of a cooperative orthogonal multiple relay channel. We propose and analyze the performance of a novel MAC protocol based on the legacy IEEE 802.11 standard in a representative and general study case scenario. The main conclusion of the study is that a proper selection of the MAC protocol being used in a cooperative system is highly relevant in order to actually achieve the benefits of this kind of systems