areas networks where all nodes can be potential relays. Since the proposed protocol optimizes the cooperative transmission for a single hop, this relaxation with respect to the network structure, is possible. Fig. \[fig:topology-mac-cc2\] presents a small network that is used throughout this paper for explaining several aspects of the presented algorithms. In this paper we assume that the core of the MAC functionality corresponds to the IEEE 802.11 MAC protocol that operates under the distributed coordination function (DCF) [@IEEE-80211]. Nodes contend for the channel and when the backoff timer expires they use the request-to-send (RTS) and clear-to-send (CTS) floor acquisition mechanism for contacting the intended destination node. This very popular way of randomizing channel access with CSMA/CA ensures that there is only one node that completes successfully the RTS/CTS message exchange and obtains access to the channel. The RTS message is received by relay candidates that indicate their ability to act as relays for the impending transmission with a special message that we describe in later sections. Note that a node may be mobile which means that it might not be able to complete the necessary signalling and thus cannot participate in a cooperative transmission. From previous message exchanges, the 