Cross-layer design for double-string cooperative communications in wireless ad-hoc networks

This paper proposes a novel architecture for cooperative communication in wireless ad-hoc networks capable of offering reliable and low-latency services efficiently. The proposed solution is characterised by the following relevant features: (i) a wireless connection between each couple of network nodes is established via multiple relays; (ii) each source-to-destination link is characterised by a double-string topology, allowing the use of specific transmit diversity techniques for reliable communications; and (iii) a novel utility-based routing metric providing a fair exploitation of the available energy/bandwidth resources is employed. Simulation results evidence that our solution offers substantial energy savings with respect to traditional ad-hoc architectures employing multihop routing and operating in the absence of cooperative strategies. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.