Enhanced performance of heterogeneous networks through full-duplex relaying

In this article, we focus on the uplink of a heterogeneous network composed of a macrocell and an underlaid femtocell. We address the problem of the interference caused by the macro user (MU) on the femtocell [femto base station (FBS) and users]. The femtocell is composed of an user, a femto relay, which can be seen as another FBS or a dedicated relay, and an FBS. We assume a full-duplex relay (FDR) node which is able to transmit and receive simultaneously while suffering from residual self-interference. We focus on the performance of the femtocell according to different positions of the MU user. We derive closed-form expressions for the outage probability and spectral efficiency (throughput) taking into account the self-interference of the FDR node. Moreover, we assume that the nodes are able to apply successive interference cancellation on the MU signal. Our results show that FDR can considerably enhance the performance of the femtocell, even in the presence of strong self-interference at the FDR, allowing the femtocell to operate in a high rate regime.