A Survey on Implementation and Applications of Full Duplex Wireless Communications

Abstract

Nowadays, wireless networks play an important role in our daily life. Hence, radio frequency (RF) spectrum which is required to support the large number of users of these networks, have become a very valuable resource. Full Duplex (FD) communications, in which data can be sent and received using the same frequency band at the same time, is a promising solution for satisfying, at least in part, the ever increasing demand for wireless spectrum. Theoretically, FD could double the spectral efficiency and capacity. However, in order to harvest these benefits, it has to combat/suppress self-interference (SI) caused by transmitting and receiving data, simultaneously. FD systems should use SI cancellation methods to deal with this important challenge. Due to the significant benefits of FD communication, this research area has recently attracted much attention among the research community. In this paper, we review the applications and implementation challenges of FD communication in different subject areas such as energy harvesting, vehicular communication, massive Multiple-Input Multiple-Output (MIMO), small cells, practical implementation, millimeter wave and military applications. We also study the tradeoffs in deploying FD communication in each of the applications.