Cooperative Multi-channel Access for Industrial Wireless Networks Based 802.11 Standard

Abstract

Cooperative communication , which can achieve spatial diversity by exploiting distributed virtual antennas of cooperative nodes, has attracted much attention because of its ability to mitigate fading in wireless networks. Previous studies have shown that significant gain can be obtained through cooperative communication in terms of reliability, coverage range, and energy efficiency. IEEE 802.11 networking is entering a new phase with the ongoing standardization of IEEE 802.11s and the recent introduction of Wi-Fi Direct technology. The new technologies will allow 802.11 devices to easily communicate directly with each other by forming a mesh network, which will open up new avenues for device-to-device communication. This chapter focuses on the practical utilization of a novel cooperation approach at the media access control (MAC) layer to allow multi-channel access in 802.11 mesh networks.