Patent ID: 8670423

Claim:
A cooperative wireless communication system, comprising: a cooperative Media Access Control (CMAC) protocol comprising: a forward error control (FEC) for each frame transmitted, and a request-to-send (RTS), clear-to-send (CTS) and a partner-clear-to-send (PCTS) RTS/CTS/PCTS handshaking procedure for a source device and a destination device of said source to request cooperation from relay/partner device such that only a relay/partner device that receives both an RTS transmitted by the source device and a CTS transmitted by the destination device decides based on a self rating whether or not to cooperate as a partner with the source and destination to transmit information therebetween; and a plurality of devices configured to employ the CMAC protocol such that each device can be any of a source, a destination and a relay/partner and combination thereof, wherein a relay/partner device of said plurality further comprises: a local memory that stores link data received in a CTS frame and an RTS frame, and self rating data; a partnering decision module that includes: a quality estimation component to estimate and store the quality of links as said link data based on said link data, and a rating component to rate and store the self rating of the relay/partner device as a candidate relay/partner for relaying transmissions between the source and the destination based on said link data a partnering participation module to self-select, when said self rating is one of a predetermined selection set of ratings, to cooperate as a partner with the source and destination to transmit information therebetween.