Medium access control for xor-ed packets

A method comprising:

• receiving, by a wireless node in a wireless network, a ready to send message from a relay node, the ready to send message indicating an access channel to send a clear to send message;
• sending, to the relay node, the clear to send message via the access channel indicated for the clear to send message;
• receiving an XOR-ed packet from the relay node;
• and
• decoding the XOR-ed packet by XOR-ing the XOR-ed packet with a native packet stored in a packet pool of the wireless node.

An apparatus comprising:

• a memory configured to store:
• queued packets in an output queue;
• and
• a packet pool for each of a plurality of wireless nodes;
• a controller configured to:
• select at least two of the queued packets based on the sets of native packets;
• and
• generate an XOR-ed packet by XOR-ing at least two of the selected queued packets;
• and
• a wireless transceiver configured to:
• send a ready to send message to a plurality of wireless nodes, the ready to send message indicating access channels for each of the wireless nodes to send clear to send messages;
• receive, via the indicated access channels for sending the clear to send messages, the clear to send messages from each of the wireless nodes;
• and
• send the XOR-ed packet to the wireless nodes in response to receiving the clear to send messages.

An apparatus comprising:

• a memory configured to store native packets in a packet pool;
• a wireless transceiver configured to:
• receive a ready to send message from a relay node, the ready to send message indicating an access channel to send a clear to send message;
• send the clear to send message to the relay node via the access channel indicated for the clear to send message;
• and
• receive an XOR-ed packet from the relay node;
• and
• a controller configured to decode the XOR-ed packet by XOR-ing the XOR-ed packet with at least one of the native packets stored in the packet pool.