Abstract
When perceived from the perspective of Physical Layer upwards, as it capitalises on signal processing in both the spatial and temporal domains, the concept of Link Layer inherent Distributed Cooperative Relaying based on Virtual Antenna Arrays aims to improve the reliability of wireless communications through the exploitation of radio diversity provided by Relay Nodes. Given such a context, the inclusion of Network Layer routines of relevance may only further facilitate the orchestration of networked devices in terms of arranging for their pre-selection into cooperative groups. However, as the system becomes more and more complex, it appears of necessity to incorporate overlay elements of self-management driven Generic Autonomic Network Architecture to allow simultaneous formation of numerous cooperative and non-cooperative set-ups. This is where the substantial role of autonomic system design comes into the global picture as the umbrella under which the concept of Autonomic Cooperative Communications may be realised.
TopBackground
As the number of globally interconnected devices is becoming substantially large, the resulting networked systems are getting prone to configuration issues and resiliency becomes one of their key characteristics. Following the rationale behind self-management of autonomic computing, the main trend in networking nowadays is to put emphasis on the ability of a networked system to self-configure, self-optimise, self-heal, and self-protect without any explicit need for external human intervention. This is crucial, for complexity reasons, as complete automation appears to be the only reasonable and justified way forward. In particular, devices may improve the related system robustness by sharing their computational resources through the application of cooperative schemes having been elevated to the level of Autonomic Cooperative Behaviour. For this reason the autonomic system design behind the Generic Autonomic Network Architecture was applied to synergise both the concept of Virtual Antenna Arrays and Multi-Point Relay station selection heuristics of the Optimised Link State Routing protocol, so that substantially large set-ups of devices could be considered to imitate the operation of Human Autonomic Nervous System. This was achieved with the aid of Autonomic Cooperative Networked System design allowing for the overall system to be controlled by Decision Making Entities within Autonomic Control Loops.
Key Terms in this Chapter
Distributed Cooperative Relaying: The mapping of the rationale behind spatio-temporal processing onto networked systems where designated Relay Nodes may form Virtual Antenna Arrays and, given proper synchronization, provide better transmission robustness or throughput.
Autonomic System: A concept advocating for a networked computer system to follow the principle behind the functioning of the Human Autonomic Nervous System, thus enabling it to self-manage without any need for external intervention for the majority of the time of its operation.
Spatio-Temporal Processing: A generic term for the space-time block and trellis coded concepts allowing for the exploitation of the radio channel orthogonality for the purposes of increasing either the system robustness or its throughput with the aid of the Multiple Input Multiple Output (MIMO) technology.
Multi-Point Relays: A set of network nodes chosen with the aid of the MPR station selection heuristics of the Optimised Link State Routing protocol in such a way that the protocol control overhead becomes substantially reduced.