A performance comparison of in-band full duplex and dynamic TDD for 5G indoor wireless networks

In-band full duplex has emerged as a solution for high data rate and low access delay for 5G wireless networks after its feasibility has been demonstrated. However, the impact of the in-band full duplex on the system-level performance of multi-cell wireless networks has not been investigated thoroughly. In this paper, we conduct an extensive simulation study to investigate the performance of in-band full duplex for indoor 5G small cell wireless networks. Particularly, we compare the in-band full duplex with static and dynamic time division duplexing schemes which require much less hardware complexity. We examine the effects of beamforming and interference cancellation under various traffic demands and asymmetry situations in the performance comparison. Our objective is to identify under which condition and with which technology support the in-band full duplex becomes advantageous over the simpler duplexing schemes. Numerical results indicate that for highly utilized wireless networks, in-band full duplex should be combined with interference cancellation and beamforming in order to achieve a performance gain over traditional duplexing schemes. Only then in-band full duplex is considered to be advantageous at any number of active mobile stations in the network and any downlink to uplink traffic proportion. Our results also suggest that in order to achieve a performance gain with the in-band full duplex in both links, the transmit power of the access points and the mobile stations should be comparable.