An efficient MAC protocol for cooperative diversity in mobile ad hoc networks

Cooperative diversity is proposed to combat the detrimental effects of channel fading. In this paper, we investigate the effectiveness of cooperative diversity in interference limited ad hoc networks. The negative effects due to relay blocking on the network throughput are investigated. We show that the relay blocking problem is mainly dependent on the relay selection criterion. To overcome this problem, we propose a new cooperative diversity technique based on a modified IEEE 802.11 Medium Access Control (MAC) protocol. The throughput performance of the proposed MAC protocol is analyzed using a random structured network where nodes are assumed to be equipped with multiple antennas. In our simulations, we consider both single- and rnultiple-relay scenarios over fading channels. Copyright (C) 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.