Generalized PF scheduling for bidirectional and user-multiplexing unidirectional full-duplex links

In-band full-duplex (IBFD) operation can potentially double the spectral efficiency of wireless networks. For IBFD operation, self-interference is a critical issue. In addition, in full-duplex cellular (FDC) networks, particularly when the cell size is small, inter-user interference would be another limiting factor for the performance. To overcome these issues, the scheduling scheme proposed in this paper is to adaptively utilize bidirectional IBFD in addition to half-duplex (HD) and unidirectional IBFD in FDC networks according to the residual self-interference after interference cancellation and inter-user interference. The proposed scheme is based on generalized proportional fair scheduling by using a fairness parameter. Extensive simulations are conducted to analyze the impact of the cell size. Simulation results revealed that the use of bidirectional IBFD is extremely effective for a small cell with few users if self-interference is sufficiently canceled because inter-user interference is large in small cell and the scheduler tends to select bidirectional IBFD in the cell with few users.