Reliable cooperative communications: A signal processing approach

We consider cooperative communications where nodes forward information for each other to achieve reliable communication. Cooperative communication is realized through various protocols such as Decode-and-Forward which are primarily designed with the assumption that nodes are always willing to cooperate. However, in practical systems nodes may violate the rules of cooperation with the selfish intention of reaping the benefits cooperation without bearing the cost. It is thus difficult to design an optimal cooperative system where nodes achieve reliable communication without implementing techniques for detection and mitigation of selfish behavior. In this paper, we present a joint technique comprised of detection and prediction components to provide protection against selfish nodes.