In a relay scheme, a wireless source apparatus, a wireless destination apparatus and a wireless relay apparatus cooperate for handling transmission failures by space/time diverse channels. In the case of the successful direct transmission, reduced or no additional overhead for the relay selection is incurred. Thus, for a good SNR between source and destination, the inventive protocol has similar performance as a standard approach. In the case of a transmission failure e.g., due to small scale fading, a transmission via different communication paths implementing spatial diversity via a selected relay is supported. The device is to only activate the overhearing of signals in case of weak signal quality between sender and receiver. This selection of relay devices is done of demand only. A specific protocol for the reservation of the wireless medium for the entire cooperative communication has been specified.