Multipair Virtual Full Duplex Relaying with Massive MIMO

Abstract

This paper considers a massive multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) aided multipair relay network with virtual full-duplex relaying, where multiple single-antenna sources transmit signals to single-antenna destinations via two massive MIMO relays. The two half-duplex relay nodes work in virtual full-duplex relaying mode that transmit and receive signals in turn. We investigate the sum-rate performance of multipair virtual full-duplex relaying with simple maximum ratio combination and maximum ratio transmission at the relays, and derive closed-form expressions for the asymptotic signal-to-interference-plus-noise ratios when the numbers of relay antennas go infinite. We also compare the sum-rate performance of virtual full-duplex relaying with real full-duplex and conventional half-duplex relaying schemes. Both analytical and numerical results show that virtual full-duplex relaying with massive antenna arrays can achieve the same performance as real full-duplex relaying in symmetric multipair networks, and significantly outperform its half-duplex counterpart.