Cooperative communication in wireless networks has become more and more attractive recently since it could mitigate the particularly severe channel impairments arising from multipath propagation. Here the greater benefits gained by exploiting spatial diversity in the channel. In this paper, an overview on cooperative communication in wireless networks is presented. We inscribe the benefits of cooperative transmission than traditional non – cooperative communication. Practical issues and challenges in cooperative communication are identified. In particular, we present a study on the advantages, applications and different routing strategies for cooperative mesh networks, Ad hoc networks and wireless sensor networks.