Cooperative Communication

Cooperative PHY Layer Architecture (Wireless Networking Protocols)

In a cooperative communication system, the DECODER is replaced by a cooperative decoder, often a substantially more complex device with additional storage, multiple soft-symbol interfaces, and, in some instances, a more complex interface to the network layer. The actions of the cooperative decoder depend on whether a node plays the role of an intermediate relay […]

Proposed Cooperative Diversity Protocols (Wireless Networking Protocols)

Numerous cooperative strategies have been proposed in the literature and many of these have been examined in topic 5. However, only a handful of papers have considered cooperative signaling in the context of practical networks based on existing PHY layer signaling standards and supporting multiple source-destination data streams. In this section, we examine four cooperative […]

Experimental Performance Comparisons (Wireless Networking Protocols)

A reader may wish to compare the above proposals and ask: Is one of them truly superior? We note that encouraging results have been reported for all three protocols: • CoopMAC: In [122], it was reported that CoopMAC provides network capacity gains ranging from 40% to 60% relative to 802.11g, with the higher figure requiring […]

Design Comparisons (Wireless Networking Protocols)

The CoopMAC, HARBINGER, VMISO, and COPE protocols offer very different mechanisms for relay selection and packet delivery. However, they do share some common features: • Receiver cooperation among multiple nodes for packet decoding is not used. • Cooperation is handled below the network layer (see Figure 2.1). • Establishing a multihop route from a source […]

A Contrarian View (Wireless Networking Protocols)

In this text, we have observed that cooperation enables non-trivial network performance benefits. But one may wonder if cooperative communications will be implemented in mainstream networking technologies or if cooperation will remain just a research curiosity. From the perspective of practice, a contrarian can identify many potential barriers to implementation. We examine two such barriers. […]

Final Remarks (Wireless Networking Protocols)

We have observed that cooperative communication holds considerable promise. Some of this promise is evidenced in the proposals examined in this topic. However, much remains to be done. For example, the proposals do not incorporate many of the ideas in topic 4. It is tempting to argue that cooperation demands a complete redesign of the […]

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