A cooperative communication protocol for wireless ad-hoc networks

Abstract

This thesis presents the design and implementation of a communication protocol that utilizes local cooperation among nodes to efficiently transfer data. Multi-hop routing in ad-hoc wireless networks realizes some scalability benefits over direct transmission by utilizing cooperation in the network layer, where all nodes act as routers to relay messages. Cooperative transmission takes this idea a step further, moving cooperation to the link layer, where nodes actually broadcast signals simultaneously to increase signal strength. Using network topology information derived from propagation delay measurement, nodes dynamically establish and update membership in rebroadcasting cells. Rebroadcast cells use constructively interfering modulation schemes to broadcast radio signals together, directing an amplified signal toward the intended recipient. This results in a link-layer routing system well suited to real-time data streaming in mobile, ad-hoc, wireless networks.