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Current Projects

Networking with Cooperative Diversity

Key Words: Cooperative diversity, ad hoc networks, sensor networks, routing, medium access control

Project Members

Aytac Azgin

Project Description

Cooperative diversity techniques have been proposed to increase the transmission diversity characteristics of wireless networks by exploiting the broadcast nature of the wireless channel. The main goal of cooperative diversity is to create a virtual MIMO system by forming a virtual antenna array, in which each element of the array represents a single node having a single antenna.

In a cooperative network, each node in the virtual antenna array transmits redundant signals over multiple paths to allow the destination node average the channel variations. By taking advantage of multiple receptions of the same data at various nodes, cooperative diversity can improve the channel capacity using minimum amount of energy by allowing cooperation among a subset of the nodes in that cooperative receiver set.

In this project, our goal is to provide a complete framework in the practical implementation of cooperative diversity in wireless networks. Specifically, we will achieve the following: (i) propose optimal cooperative routing and MAC protocols to maximize the cooperative diversity advantage, (ii) determine the impact of mobility and propose protocols that adapt itself to the varying node locations, (iii) evaluate how interference caused by cooperation affects the throughput performance of the network and design approaches that are able to provide a tradeoff between capacity gain and energy gain, (iv) evaluate the impact of cooperation on network lifetime and propose unicast and multicast network protocols to maximize the network lifetime.

Related Publications

A. Azgin, Y. Altunbasak, and G. AlRegib, "Mobility Support for Cooperative Wireless Networks", IEEE VTC 2006 Fall, Montreal, Canada
A. Azgin, Y. Altunbasak, and G. AlRegib "Cooperative MAC and routing protocols for wireless Ad Hoc networks", IEEE GLOBECOM Conference, Volume 5, Page(s):2854 –2859, 28 Nov.-2 Dec. 2005.