Optimal Cooperative MAC Protocol for IEEE 802.11-based Mesh Networks

Benoît Escrig (1, 2) , Daniel Roviras (3, 4)

1 IRIT-SC - Signal et Communications
2 Toulouse INP - Institut National Polytechnique (Toulouse)
3 CEDRIC - LAETITIA - CEDRIC. Traitement du signal et architectures électroniques
4 CNAM - Conservatoire National des Arts et Métiers [CNAM]

This paper presents a new cooperative MAC (Medium Access Control) protocol for IEEE 802.11-based mesh networks. The protocol is characterized by two features: on-demand relaying and selection of the best relay terminal. ”On-demand relaying” means that a cooperative communication occurs only when a destination terminal fails in decoding the data transmitted by a source terminal. This approach allows minimization of bandwidth degradation due to both cooperation implementation and cooperative communications. ”Selection of the best relay terminal” means that a relay selection is implemented when cooperation is needed. This feature allows maximization of the spatial diversity order. The outage probability of the new protocol is compared to the outage probability of other cooperative MAC protocols.

Mots clés: Cooperative communications; MAC protocols; Wireless systems; Cooperative communications

Domaines: Réseaux et télécommunications [cs.NI]; Traitement du signal et de l'image [eess.SP]

Benoît Escrig, Daniel Roviras. Optimal Cooperative MAC Protocol for IEEE 802.11-based Mesh Networks. 1st International Conference on New Generation Wireless Systems (2009), Oct 2009, Melbourne, Australia. pp.1-4. ⟨hal-04104919⟩