Patent ID: 8170471

Claim:
A cooperative communication method in a vehicle communication system, comprising: (a) allowing a transmission vehicle to initialize parameters of the transmission vehicle and scan signals for adjacent repeaters positioned adjacent to the transmission vehicle, the parameters including a threshold distance and a maximum number of repeaters; (b) allowing the transmission vehicle to select repeaters that the selected repeaters number is equal to or less than the maximum number of repeaters, select information on the selected repeaters, and verify distances to the selected repeaters when receiving a signal from an adjacent repeater; (c) allowing the transmission vehicle to set a decode-and-forward mode or an amplify-and-forward mode depending on positions of the selected repeaters and broadcasting a signal to the adjacent repeaters; (d) allowing the adjacent repeaters to transmit the signal form the transmission vehicle to a reception vehicle in the decode-and-forward mode or the amplify-and-forward mode; and (e) allowing the reception vehicle to combine and demodulate a received signal when the received signal is stored in a buffer and thereafter signals are received from all repeaters.