Scaling wireless full-duplex in multi-cell networks

Abstract

We investigate the open problem of characterizing the multiplexing gain offered by FD in a network of M cells (compared to the gain of two available on a single link). While self-interference cancellation is fundamental in realizing full duplex (FD) capability, the more challenging problem in a network-wide deployment of FD communication is a new form of uplink-downlink interference, namely UDI, caused by transmission of uplink clients on the downlink reception of other clients operating in the same frequency band during FD. We leverage spatial interference alignment (IA) as an effective approach to address UDI and characterize the scalability of the FD's multiplexing gain (in terms of M) by providing a closed-form expression. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first characterization of FD's multiplexing gain in a multi-cell network. We also provide an IA construction that can achieve the best scaling possible. Further, we extend our results to practical settings with limited number of clients and limited information sharing between access points.