Cooperative relaying is a promising approach to improve data rate and coverage in wireless networks. Although the benefits of cooperation have been consistently shown in theory, the performance of realistic cooperative networks is still not clear. Bridging this gap between theory and practice is the objective of this thesis. This is done in three steps. First, practical selection relaying protocols are analyzed under realistic assumptions. Second, efficient protocol extensions are described and, third, a prototype for cooperative Wireless Local Area Networks (WLANs) is demonstrated. Based on...