Mobile Cooperative WLANs - MAC and Transceiver Design, Prototyping, and Field Measurements

Abstract

We propose a practical medium access control (MAC) protocol and transceiver design for mobile cooperative WLANs. Our MAC protocol integrates selection decode-and-forward (SDF) cooperative relaying into IEEE 802.11. Unlike previous approaches, its cooperative signaling cycle allows communication if the direct link fails even for small signaling frames. Further SDF functions are efficiently supported by our ready- to-use transceiver design. We implement this design, including our MAC protocol, on a software defined radio (SDR) resulting in a cooperative IEEE 802.11g prototype. Using this prototype, we validate feasibility and performance of our approaches by extensive field measurements in indoor and railroad scenarios with an actual train moving the cooperating terminals.