Power Efficient Broadcasting with Cooperative Diversity in Ad hoc Networks

Cooperative diversity entails the simultaneous transmission ofinformation by multiple nodes that are in the proximity of each other; this process emulates the functionality of an antenna array. The use of cooperative communications can help combat interference and fading and hence, significantly improve the reliability of the wireless channel without the physical deployment of cumbersome antenna arrays on mobile terminals. The increased reliability allows for nodes to use lower transmission power levels and yet, achieve the transmission range possible with traditional single-input single-output (SISO) communications. In this paper, we focus on saving energy while performing network-wide broadcasting in ad hoc networks by using cooperative diversity. We develop a new broadcast protocol that exploits cooperative diversity links to disseminate information to all the nodes in the network with much lower consumed power. Our simulation results demonstrate that our protocol maintains the coverage that is possible with broadcast schemes based on traditional SISO transmissions but with a significantly higher power efficiency. Index Item— Cooperative Diversity, Broadcasting, Ad hoc Networks