  The throughput performance of a random cooperative medium access control
(CoopMAC) network in the presence of shadowing is considered. The nodes are
assumed to be randomly distributed according to a homogeneous two-dimensional
Poisson point process with constant intensity. The conditions under which a
helper can improve the transmission rate between a given pair of nodes are
examined. Based on these conditions, an exact analytical expression is derived
for the average cooperative throughput of a random CoopMAC network that is
subject to path loss and shadowing. This expression is then used to investigate
the effects of shadowing, intensity of nodes and the distance between source
and destination nodes on the cooperative throughput of the network. It is
observed that the average cooperative throughput of the network increases only
slightly when the intensity of helpers increases beyond a certain value.
