Performance evaluation of Cooperative MAC and ZRP in Cooperative Communication Networking Environment

---------------------------------------------------------------------***--------------------------------------------------------------------Abstract -The concept of cooperative communication has been proposed to improve link capacity, transmission reliability, network coverage and cooperative transmission ranges in multiuser wireless communication networks. Cooperative communication allows multiple users or stations in a wireless network to coordinate packet transmissions and share each other’s resources, thus achieving high performance gain, better service coverage and enhanced cooperative transmissions ranges. According to the IEEE 802.11 standards, wireless local area networks (WLANs) can support multiple transmissions data rates, depending on the instantaneous channel condition between a source station and an access point (AP). In this work a Cooperative Medium Access Control (CoopMAC) protocol, in which high data rate stations assist low data rate stations in their traffic. Extensive simulation results validate the mathematical models developed and show that CoopMAC protocol can significantly improve system throughput, service delay and energy efficiency for WLANs operating under realistic communication scenarios.