Joint MAC layer relaying and price based resource allocation in multihop wireless networks

TL;DR: The results obtained show that the combined MAC relaying and resource allocation can achieve the benefits of both cooperative communication and fair resource allocation, without severely degrading the network performance.

Abstract: Recently, cooperative communication has been used as a cost effective alternative to traditional MIMO systems. Even though cooperative relaying at the physical and/or MAC layer improves the performance of the network, it increases the level of interference in a multihop wireless network. In a multihop wireless adhoc network, the amount of interference created can be reduced by using power control. In this work, we use cooperative MAC layer relaying with explicit power control to reap the benefits of cooperative communication in a multihop wireless network. In addition to this, we also use price based resource allocation in order to fairly allocate resources in a multihop wireless network with multiple flows. The results obtained show that the combined MAC relaying and resource allocation can achieve the benefits of both cooperative communication and fair resource allocation, without severely degrading the network performance.