The Value of Full-Duplex for Cellular Networks: A Hybrid Duplex-Based Study

Recent work has demonstrated the gain of full-duplex (FD) network over half-duplex (HD) network in bidirectional sum throughput under the assumption of symmetric uplink-downlink traffic demands and perfect self-interference suppression (SIS). In this paper, we study the performance gain of FD network over HD network under asymmetric bidirectional traffic demands and non-ideal SIS. To this end, we investigate the traditional static time division duplex (TDD) transmission mode and the advanced dynamic TDD transmission mode to obtain the performance of HD network, and investigate the pure FD transmission mode and a flexible HD-FD hybrid transmission mode, namely, XD mode, to obtain the performance of FD network. We use the number of users supported by a network as performance metric, which is defined as the minimum of the weighted numbers of users supported in uplink and downlink given random traffic demands of users. To maximize the number of users, we optimize the bidirectional transmit power for pure FD mode, bidirectional time slot configuration for dynamic TDD mode, and both for XD mode. Numerical results show an evident gain of pure FD mode and XD mode over static TDD mode for different levels of traffic asymmetry, but the gain over dynamic TDD mode is marginal, which cannot justify the application of FD technology in cellular systems without advanced interference control mechanisms.