In-Band Full-Duplex Communications in ATSC 3.0 Single Frequency Network

Abstract

Wireless in-band backhaul, a.k.a. in-band distribution links (IDL), is a spectrum-efficient and cost-effective enabling technology to the realization of Advanced Television Systems Committee (ATSC) 3.0 in the single frequency network (SFN) mode, where all the transmitter towers are synchronized to transmit the same broadcast signal in the same frequency band. Inter-tower communications network (ITCN) transforms the broadcast towers into a mesh network, thereby introducing datacasting capability to the traditional broadcast network. Both the ITCN and IDL can be operated in the most spectrum-efficient in-band full-duplex (IBFD) mode. In these situations, the ITCN/IDL receivers at the SFN towers receive the signal of interest (SOI) not only severely corrupted by the self-interference signal from its co-located transmitter, but also the co-channel interference signals from neighbouring transmitters. Moreover, the ITCN/IDL signals may be combined with the broadcast signal in the Layer Division Multiplexing (LDM) format to achieve better overall spectral efficiency. Therefore, the LDM inter-layer interference must also be mitigated. In this paper, the interferences for the ITCN/IDL signal in the SFN environment are analyzed, and a novel iterative successive signal cancellation scheme is proposed to effectively mitigate the interferences in the ITCN/IDL signal detection process in ATSC 3.0 SFNs.