Cooperative Wireless Networking Beyond Store-and-Forward

Stefan Valentin, Hermann S. Lichte, Holger Karl, Guillaume Vivier, Sébastien Simoens, Josep Vidal, Adrian Agustin
2007 Wireless personal communications  
In future wireless networks end-user terminals may cooperate to form logical links. Each of these links may consist of several independent physical channels which are shared by the cooperating partners. Even without multiple antennas this cooperation provides diversity in time and space. This socalled user cooperative diversity increases the robustness of the link vs. fading and interference. After surveying approaches in cooperative diversity we focus on the consequences of these new methods
more » ... r resource allocation. We discuss which additional factors are introduced by user cooperation and how resource allocation can be combined with cooperative diversity schemes. When it comes to implementation, the question arises how cooperation can be integrated efficiently into existing WLAN standards or wireless mesh networks. A case study of the 802.11 standard reveals the issues that need to be solved in order to deploy cooperative techniques. We provide an overview of the state of the art in implementing cooperative approaches, analyze how appropriate these approaches solve the issues, and, where appropriate, point out their deficiencies. We conclude with a road map for future research necessary to tackle these deficiencies for the practical implementation of cooperation in next-generation WLAN standards and mesh networks.
doi:10.1007/s11277-007-9429-2 fatcat:zswunp7rrnggvh6qlys525z7su