Cooperative Packet Routing using Mutual Information Accumulation

Abstract: We consider the resource allocation problem in cooperative wireless networks wherein nodes perform mutual information accumulation. We consider a unicast setting and arbitrary arrival processes at the source node. Source arrivals can be broken down into numerous packets to better exploit the spatial and temporal diversity of the routes available in the network. We devise a linear-program-based algorithm which allocates network resource to meet a certain transmission objective. Given a network, a source with multiple arriving packets and a destination, our algorithm generates a policy that regulates which nodes should participate in transmitting which packets, when and with what resource. By routing different packets through different nodes the policy exploits spatial route diversity, and by sequencing packet transmissions along the same route it exploits temporal route diversity.