Power efficiency of user cooperation in multihop wireless networks

In this paper we analyze the power efficiency of a user cooperation scheme for multihop wireless networks. In this scheme, the signals are jointly transmitted by two mobile terminals (MTs), emulating transmit macro diversity. We derive the optimal transmit power assignments for the two transmitting MTs and quantify the power efficiency of the scheme. The results indicate that macro diversity by way of user cooperation can substantially reduce the total consumed power in multihop wireless networks for wide range of topologies of MTs and their distances.