Performance Analysis of IEEE 802.11 Ad Hoc Networks with Cooperative ARQ in the Presence of Hidden and Exposed Terminals

We present in this paper the analysis of an IEEE 802.11 network in the presence of hidden and exposed terminals when a Cooperative ARQ (C-ARQ) scheme is executed at the MAC layer. When spontaneous helpers transmit to assist in a failed transmission, the area exposed to the original transmission increases in comparison to non-cooperative ARQ schemes. In this paper we quantify this effect and we evaluate the relevance of designing efficient protocols to combat the exposed terminal problem.