Implementing MAC protocols for cooperative relaying: a compiler-assisted approach

Evaluating the performance of a cooperative relaying protocol requires an implementation for simulators and/or software-defined radios (SDRs) with an appropriate model for error detection, combining, and Medium Access Control (MAC) automaton. Such implementations are essential for meaningful evaluation of practical systems since any protocol introduces overhead that constrains the theoretical performance in non-obvious ways. Unfortunately, protocols for cooperative relaying often yield complex implementations which are tedious to implement and debug. Therefore, we identify basic operations that are inherent to all cooperative relaying protocols, and we propose a new language for their specification. Then, we show how to construct a compiler for the proposed language that generates most of the required implementation (model and MAC automaton) automatically. This approach prevents subtle mistakes during implementation of the protocol, and can significantly increase development time. In addition, this paper discusses code generation exemplarily for OMNeT++/Mobility Framework, but the approach is not restricted to a specific simulator or SDR.