Cooperative relaying has recently appeared as one of the widely recognized features for future wireless communication systems. The great potential of cooperative communication in increasing system capacity and enhancing power efficiency has attracted large efforts over the last few years. In this paper, we propose a Cooperation Loop as a reference model for all algorithms in relay based cooperative wireless networks. Using this model, we discuss cooperative relay based protocols in IEEE 802.11 standards and limits posed to cognitive approaches. We show the potential location area of relay nodes as well as the performance bounds of capacity gain, delay and power efficiency achieved in relay based scenarios for any cooperative cognitive algorithms.