A Low Coordination Overhead C-ARQ Protocol with Frame Combining

Abstract

This paper proposes a low coordination overhead cooperative automatic repeat request (ARQ) scheme with an integrated frame combiner, which exploits space diversity and cooperation between neighbouring nodes. In channels with a strong line of sight (LOS) component and low signal-to- noise ratio (SNR), the maximum achievable throughput of the proposed protocol is many times higher than for other ARQ schemes. For non LOS scenarios, the cooperative ARQ without frame combiner achieves the best efficiency results, and the overhead introduced by the frame combiner mechanisms leads to results which can be even below the classical ARQ mechanism.