Cooperation Scenarios in Cooperative Multiple Access Channels

In this paper, we present preliminary results on achievables rates in half-duplex cooperative multiple access channels (CMAC). We show that the upper bound on the capacity of the half-duplex CMAC can be solved using convex optimization techniques. Under a Gaussian model, we study the maximal achievable rate by every node in the network. We propose a number of scenarios, encompassing existing and theoretical cooperation schemes. Using these hypotheses, we evaluate the performance of both a non-cooperative concurrent access and simple cooperative multi-hop or relaying schemes with respect to the upper bound. The performance is compared for the various scenarios, and we provide analyses of specific cases in order to illustrate how our framework may be used to answer targeted questions about the capacity of CMACs.