The main advantage of cooperative communication is that the power of the signal and quality of the signal is increased as compared to simple network communication.
The cooperative communication gives us leverage to get the inherent advantages of its random node’s locations and the direction of the data flow. Depending on the channel conditions and the transmission distance, the number of cooperative nodes is selected, that participate in an energy efficient transmission/reception. while as in network communication , it is simply communication between nodes
There are loads of advantages of cooperative communications, i.e. Performance gain, Balanced Quality of Services, Infrastructure less deplyment, Reduced costs etc.. Disadvantages are complex scheduling, increased overhead, increased interference, extra traffic etc.