Cooperative MAC for Wireless Networks
无线网络协作MAC机制

Cooperation Communication (CC) utilizes the antennas of idle nodes to create a virtual MIMO (multiple-input multiple-output) system. The CC can combat the fading in wireless links and achieve spatial diversity gains, which makes it a key technology for the next-generation wireless mobile networks. Nowadays, many researches focus on increasing the channel capacity, decreasing the energy consumption and outage probability by selecting appropriate cooperative nodes. New MAC (medium access control) mechanisms (cooperative MAC), however, are needed to satisfy the cooperation communication because the communication mode is changed in cooperation communication networks. In this paper, a survey on the cooperative MAC is given. The challenging issues for cooperative MAC are discussed, and some cooperative MACs are presented and analyzed. The research direction of cooperation MACs is discussed in the conclusion.