We design a cross-layer approach to aid in develop- ing a cooperative
solution using multi-packet reception (MPR), network coding (NC), and medium
access (MAC). We construct a model for the behavior of the IEEE 802.11 MAC
protocol and apply it to key small canonical topology components and their
larger counterparts. The results obtained from this model match the available
experimental results with fidelity. Using this model, we show that fairness
allocation by the IEEE 802.11 MAC can significantly impede performance; hence,
we devise a new MAC that not only substantially improves throughput, but
provides fairness to flows of information rather than to nodes. We show that
cooperation between NC, MPR, and our new MAC achieves super-additive gains of
up to 6.3 times that of routing with the standard IEEE 802.11 MAC. Furthermore,
we extend the model to analyze our MAC's asymptotic and throughput behaviors as
the number of nodes increases or the MPR capability is limited to only a single
node. Finally, we show that although network performance is reduced under
substantial asymmetry or limited implementation of MPR to a central node, there
are some important practical cases, even under these conditions, where MPR, NC,
and their combination provide significant gains