Analytic evaluation of power saving in cooperative communication

This paper addresses the effects of power saving mechanisms on cooperation in wireless networks. Cooperation by relaying data of other wireless nodes is crucial in (next-generation) wireless networks as it can greatly attribute to ensuring connectivity, reliability, performance, etc. As power saving relies on sleep mode, turning off the communication subsystem for predetermined amounts of time, it can greatly affect data relaying as a cooperator node may not be awake when there is data to relay. Rather than modelling one of the wireless protocols in detail, we construct a high-level queuing model capturing the two essential characteristics of cooperation and energy efficiency: relaying and sleep mode. The used analytical approach allows for accurate performance evaluation and enables us to investigate the trade-off between data relaying and energy efficiency.