Robust Interference Management and Network Design for Heterogeneous Full-Duplex Communication Networks

The challenging and diverse design requirements of 5G New Radio open the door for investigating novel solutions targeting enhanced mobile broadband and ultra-reliable low latency communication service classes. This chapter discusses challenges and opportunities of in-band full-duplex communication as a promising solution for next generation radio technologies. Realistic network assumptions are considered. The main challenges relate to self-interference cancellation and the increase of inter/intra-cell interference resulting from simultaneous transmission and reception, as well as the asymmetric nature of network traffic, thus limiting the potential gains in terms of throughput and latency reduction. Particular focus is given to system aspects including the effects on TCP/UDP protocols and symmetric/asymmetric traffic types. We discuss efficient techniques to overcome the challenges of full-duplex communication and propose interference management alternatives such as the virtual full-duplex concept. Up to 70% success probability gains over conventional full-duplex communication can be observed with the proposed virtual full-duplex technique. In addition, we foresee significant benefits and relevance of full-duplex technology in applications other than throughput enhancement and latency reduction, such as relaying, self-backhauling, autonomous device-to-device discovery, and physical layer security.