CFP: Special Issue on "Cooperative Communications in Wireless Networks"

Next generation wireless networks will go beyond the point-to-point or point-to-multipoint paradigms of classical cellular networks. They will be based on complex interactions, where the involved nodes cooperate with one another in order to improve the performance of their own communication and that of the global network. Cooperative communications based on relaying nodes have emerged as a promising approach to increase spectral and power efficiency, network coverage, and reduce outage probability. Similarly to multi-antenna transceivers, relays provide diversity by creating multiple replicas of the signal of interest. By properly coordinating different spatially distributed nodes in a wireless system, one can effectively synthesize a virtual antenna array that emulates the operation of a multi-antenna transceiver.

The demand for new generation wireless networks has spurred a vibrant flurry of research on cooperative communications during the last few years. Nevertheless, many aspects of cooperative communications are open problems. Furthermore, most of the cooperative systems proposed so far are based on ideal assumptions, such as unfeasible synchronization constraints between the relay nodes or the availability of perfect channel state information at the resource allocation unit. There is a need for research on practical ways of realizing cooperative schemes based on realistic assumptions.

The objective of this special issue is to contribute to this twofold objective: to advance in the understanding of cooperative transmission and to explore practical limitations of realistic cooperative systems. Topics of interest for this special issue include:

• Information theoretic aspects of cooperative diversity.
• Finite-SNR and asymptotic (diversity/multiplexing) performance analysis 
• Scaling laws for cooperative networks.
• Relaying strategies and protocols.
• Relay selection and resource allocation.
• Design of space-time codes for cooperative scenarios.
• Randomized space-time codes for cooperative relaying.
• Cooperative communication in multi-hop cellular networks.
• Effects of partial and incomplete channel state information in cooperative systems
• Robust designs.
• Practical issues in cooperation strategies for mobile ad-hoc and sensor networks.
• Synchronization effects in cooperative communications: effects and countermeasures.
• Asynchronous designs.

Authors should follow the EURASIP JWCN manuscript format described at http://www.hindawi.com/journals/wcn/.  Prospective authors should submit an electronic copy of their complete manuscript through the EURASIP JWCN manuscript tracking system at http://www.mstracking.com/wcn/, according to the following timetable:

Manuscript Due: November 1, 2008.

First round of reviews:  February 1, 2009.

Publication Date: May 1, 2009.

Guest editors:

• Laura Cottatellucci, Department of Mobile Communications, Institut Eurécom, France, Laura.Cottatellucci@eurecom.fr
• Xavier Mestre, Centre Tecnològic de Telecomunicacions de Catalunya, Spain, xavier.mestre@cttc.cat
• Erik G. Larsson, Division of Communication Systems, Department of Electrical Engineering, Linköping University, Sweden, erik.larsson@isy.liu.se
• Alejandro Ribeiro, Dept. of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Minnesota, USA, aribeiro@ece.umn.edu