Can Full Duplex Boost Throughput and Delay of 5G Ultra-Dense Small Cell Networks?

Given the recent advances in system and antenna design, practical implementation of full duplex (FD) communication is becoming increasingly feasible. In this paper, the potential of FD in enhancing the performance of 5th generation (5G) ultra-dense small cell networks is investigated. The goal is to understand whether FD is able to boost the system performance from a throughput and delay perspective. The impact of having symmetric and asymmetric finite buffer traffic is studied for two types of FD: when only the base station is FD capable, and when both the user equipment and base station are FD nodes. System level results indicate that there is a trade-off between multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) spatial multiplexing and FD in achieving the optimal system performance. Moreover, results show that FD may be useful for asymmetric traffic applications where the lightly loaded link requires high level performance. In such cases, FD can provide an average improvement of up to 116% in session throughput and 77% in packet delay compared to conventional half duplex transmissions.