RID: Relay with integrated data for multi-rate wireless cooperative networks

In this paper, we propose a new medium access control (MAC) protocol, called relay with integrated data (RID) for multi-rate wireless networks. RID allows remote nodes to transmit their information at a higher data rate to destination node by using intermediate nodes as relays. In RID protocol, a relay node encapsulates its own data packet and the data packet from a source node and sends both of them into one data packet to destination node. This scheme removes contention period for the relay node. Analytical and simulation results show that RID can significantly increase system throughput and reduce access delay.