Combining Cooperation and Physical Layer Network Coding to Achieve Reliable Multicast

A novel cooperative scheme based on Physical layer Network Coding (PNC) for short range communication (SRC) networks is presented in this paper. We investigate a scenario of overlapping networks with multicast traffic and propose a technique for the leverage of inter-network cooperation. Our main goal is to exploit the characteristics of PNC in a solution for cooperative SRC networks, where energy efficiency is improved without degrading Quality of Service (QoS). The performance of our proposed cooperative scenario is highly energy efficient and it also presents high throughput. Comparing our scheme with a conventional protocol we show that it presents better performance. We analytically present the throughput, the delay and the energy efficiency of the neighbouring networks and we validate the mathematical analysis through extensive simulations. In addition, we provide an assessment of the impact of the capture effect on the proposed approach. Our proposal is inspired by recent patents in telecommunications that focus on interference cancellation.