access MAC protocol that operates with an underlying physical layer (PHY) that employs ANC. It is important to stress at this point that we adopt the random access MAC principle due to its simplicity, ease of implementation in a distributed setting, and the widespread adoption in practical systems. Based on the previous choice and with the assumption that packet transmissions are allowed to interfere with a mechanism like ANC, we seek to identify the necessary algorithmic components that should be embedded a classic random access MAC protocol. Four specific algorithms of varying complexity are presented in this work. First, there is a need for a new channel access scheme that supports cooperative transmissions, next an algorithm for channel information exchange and estimation, rate estimation of the potential cooperative transmissions, and finally there is a need for an algorithm that disentangles and decodes the interfered signals. With these algorithms, the proposed cooperative MAC protocol fulfills first and foremost one basic task, that is it identifies when (and if) packets/signals can interfere. This task is performed by the relays in the wireless network that can act as “coding nodes” that subsequently forward the coded/interfered packets. Therefore, the relays in our protocol implement 