NeTS: Small: Doubling Cellular Capacity by Full Duplex Communications

New York University, New York NY

Investigators

Abstract

Traditional radio transceivers are generally not able to receive and transmit on the same frequency band because of the crosstalk between the transmitter and the receiver circuits. Given that the received signal over the air is one million times or more weaker than the transmitted signal, it is very difficult, if not impossible, to detect the received signal under internal interference from the transmitter. Thus, to avoid this interference, today's communication systems rely on half duplex transmission, typically transmitting and receiving at different times or in different frequency bands. The full duplex technology developed in this project allows for transceivers to receive and transmit in the same frequency band, at the same time, potentially doubling data rates. Given the enormous market size of the wireless industry, combined with the pressing need for solutions to solve the 'spectrum crunch', full duplex technology thus offers tremendous societal and commercial impact. This project addresses the fundamental challenges when incorporating full duplex radios in a cellular network to unlock the full potential of this technology. Specifically, the project consists of three inter-related components: (i) a radio front-end design that allows multiple antenna gains in conjunction with full duplex operation; (ii) a smart scheduler for full duplex base stations that coordinates the maximum set of transmissions with least mutual interference, while maintaining fairness among the mobiles; (iii) a joint routing and scheduling algorithm that fully utilizes full duplex enabled relay terminals. The technologies developed span physical, medium access control, and network layers, and jointly coordinate the air-interface and the backhaul. The theory and algorithms will be validated by over-the-air and end-to-end experiments.