Dani Korpi

Widely Linear Digital Self-Interference Cancellation in Direct-Conversion Full-Duplex Transceiver

This paper addresses the modeling and cancellation of self-interference in full-duplex direct-conversion radio transceivers, operating under practical imperfect radio frequency (RF) components. First, detailed self-interference signal modeling is carried out, taking into account the most important RF imperfections, namely, transmitter power amplifier nonlinear distortion as well as transmitter and receiver IQ mixer amplitude and phase imbalances. The analysis shows that after realistic antenna isolation and RF cancellation, the dominant self-interference waveform at the receiver digital baseband can be modeled through a widely linear transformation of the original transmit data, opposed to classical purely linear models. Such widely linear self-interference waveform is physically stemming from the transmitter and receiver IQ imaging and cannot be efficiently suppressed by classical linear digital cancellation. Motivated by this, novel widely linear digital self-interference cancellation processing is then proposed and formulated, combined with efficient parameter estimation methods. Extensive simulation results demonstrate that the proposed widely linear cancellation processing clearly outperforms the existing linear solutions, hence enabling the use of practical low-cost RF front ends utilizing IQ mixing in full-duplex transceivers.

Full-Duplex Transceiver System Calculations: Analysis of ADC and Linearity Challenges

Despite the intensive recent research on wireless single-channel full-duplex communications, relatively little is known about the transceiver chain nonidealities of full-duplex devices. In this paper, the effect of nonlinear distortion occurring in the transmitter power amplifier (PA) and the receiver chain is analyzed, beside the dynamic range requirements of analog-to-digital converters (ADCs). This is done with detailed system calculations, which combine the properties of the individual electronics components to jointly model the complete transceiver chain, including self-interference cancellation. They also quantify the decrease in the dynamic range for the signal of interest caused by self-interference at the analog-to-digital interface. Using these system calculations, we provide comprehensive numerical results for typical transceiver parameters. The analytical results are also confirmed with full waveform simulations. We observe that the nonlinear distortion produced by the transmitter PA is a significant issue in a full-duplex transceiver and, when using cheaper and less linear components, also the receiver chain nonlinearities become considerable. It is also shown that, with digitally intensive self-interference cancellation, the quantization noise of the ADCs is another significant problem.

Recent advances in antenna design and interference cancellation algorithms for in-band full duplex relays

In-band full-duplex relays transmit and receive simultaneously at the same center frequency, hence offering enhanced spectral efficiency for relay deployment. In order to deploy such full-duplex relays, it is necessary to efficiently mitigate the inherent self-interference stemming from the strong transmit signal coupling to the sensitive receive chain. In this article, we present novel state-of-the-art antenna solutions as well as digital self-interference cancellation algorithms for compact MIMO full-duplex relays, specifically targeted for reduced-cost deployments in local area networks. The presented antenna design builds on resonant wavetraps and is shown to provide passive isolations on the order of 60-70 dB. We also discuss and present advanced digital cancellation solutions, beyond classical linear processing, specifically tailored against nonlinear distortion of the power amplifier when operating close to saturation. Measured results from a complete demonstrator system, integrating antennas, RF cancellation, and nonlinear digital cancellation, are also presented, evidencing close to 100 dB of overall self-interference suppression. The reported results indicate that building and deploying compact full-duplex MIMO relays is already technologically feasible.

Analysis of Oscillator Phase-Noise Effects on Self-Interference Cancellation in Full-Duplex OFDM Radio Transceivers

This paper addresses the analysis of oscillator phase-noise effects on the self-interference cancellation capability of full-duplex direct-conversion radio transceivers. Closed-form solutions are derived for the power of the residual self-interference stemming from phase noise in two alternative cases of having either independent oscillators or the same oscillator at the transmitter and receiver chains of the full-duplex transceiver. The results show that phase noise has a severe effect on self-interference cancellation in both of the considered cases, and that by using the common oscillator in upconversion and downconversion results in clearly lower residual self-interference levels. The results also show that it is in general vital to use high quality oscillators in full-duplex transceivers, or have some means for phase noise estimation and mitigation in order to suppress its effects. One of the main findings is that in practical scenarios the subcarrier-wise phase-noise spread of the multipath components of the self-interference channel causes most of the residual phase-noise effect when high amounts of self-interference cancellation is desired.

Cancellation of power amplifier induced nonlinear self-interference in full-duplex transceivers

Recently, full-duplex (FD) communications with simultaneous transmission and reception on the same channel has been proposed. The FD receiver, however, suffers from inevitable self-interference (SI) from the much more powerful transmit signal. Analogue radio-frequency (RF) and baseband, as well as digital baseband, cancellation techniques have been proposed for suppressing the SI, but so far most of the studies have failed to take into account the inherent nonlinearities of the transmitter and receiver front-ends. To fill this gap, this article proposes a novel digital nonlinear interference cancellation technique to mitigate the power amplifier (PA) induced nonlinear SI in a FD transceiver. The technique is based on modeling the nonlinear SI channel, which is comprised of the nonlinear PA, the linear multipath SI channel, and the RF SI canceller, with a parallel Hammerstein nonlinearity. Stemming from the modeling, and appropriate parameter estimation, the known transmit data is then processed with the developed nonlinear parallel Hammerstein structure and suppressed from the receiver path at digital baseband. The results illustrate that with a given IIP3 figure for the PA, the proposed technique enables higher transmit power to be used compared to existing linear SI cancellation methods. Alternatively, for a given maximum transmit power level, a lower-quality PA (i.e., lower IIP3) can be used.

Full-duplex mobile device: pushing the limits

In this article, we address the challenges of transmitter-receiver isolation in mobile full-duplex devices, building on shared-antenna-based transceiver architecture. First, self-adaptive analog RF cancellation circuitry is required, since the ability to track time-varying self-interference coupling characteristics is of utmost importance in mobile devices. In addition, novel adaptive nonlinear DSP methods are also required for final self-interference suppression at digital baseband, since mobile-scale devices typically operate under highly nonlinear low-cost RF components. In addition to describing the above kind of advanced circuit and signal processing solutions, comprehensive RF measurement results from a complete demonstrator implementation are also provided, evidencing beyond 40 dB of active RF cancellation over an 80 MHz waveform bandwidth with a highly nonlinear transmitter power amplifier. Measured examples also demonstrate the good self-healing characteristics of the developed control loop against fast changes in the coupling channel. Furthermore, when complemented by nonlinear digital cancellation processing, the residual self-interference level is pushed down to the noise floor of the demonstration system, despite the harsh nonlinear nature of the self-interference. These findings indicate that deploying the full-duplex principle can indeed also be feasible in mobile devices, and thus be one potential technology in, for example, 5G and beyond radio systems.

Wideband Self-Adaptive RF Cancellation Circuit for Full-Duplex Radio: Operating Principle and Measurements

This paper presents a novel RF circuit architecture for self-interference cancellation in inband full-duplex radio transceivers . The developed canceller is able to provide wideband cancellation with waveform bandwidths in the order of 100 MHz or beyond and contains also self-adaptive or self-healing features enabling automatic tracking of time-varying self-interference channel characteristics. In addition to architecture and operating principle descriptions, we also provide actual RF measurements at 2.4 GHz ISM band demonstrating the achievable cancellation levels with different bandwidths and when operating in different antenna configurations and under low-cost highly nonlinear power amplifier. In a very challenging example with a 100 MHz waveform bandwidth, around 41 dB total cancellation is obtained while the corresponding cancellation figure is close to 60 dB with the more conventional 20 MHz carrier bandwidth. Also, efficient tracking in time-varying reflection scenarios is demonstrated.

Advanced self-interference cancellation and multiantenna techniques for full-duplex radios

In an in-band full-duplex system, radios transmit and receive simultaneously in the same frequency band at the same time, providing a radical improvement in spectral efficiency over a half-duplex system. However, in order to design such a system, it is necessary to mitigate the self-interference due to simultaneous transmission and reception, which seriously limits the maximum transmit power of the full-duplex device. Especially, large differences in power levels in the receiver front-end sets stringent requirements for the linearity of the transceiver electronics. We present an advanced architecture for a compact full-duplex multiantenna transceiver combining antenna design with analog and digital cancellation, including both linear and nonlinear signal processing.

Modeling and efficient cancellation of nonlinear self-interference in MIMO full-duplex transceivers

This paper addresses the modeling and digital cancellation of self-interference in in-band full-duplex (FD) transceivers with multiple transmit and receive antennas. The self-interference modeling and the proposed nonlinear spatio-temporal digital canceller structure takes into account, by design, the effects of I/Q modulator imbalances and power amplifier (PA) nonlinearities with memory, in addition to the multipath self-interference propagation channels and the analog RF cancellation stage. The proposed solution is the first cancellation technique in the literature which can handle such a self-interference scenario. It is shown by comprehensive simulations with realistic RF component parameters and with two different PA models to clearly outperform the current state-of-the-art digital self-interference cancellers, and to clearly extend the usable transmit power range.

Adaptive Nonlinear Digital Self-Interference Cancellation for Mobile Inband Full-Duplex Radio: Algorithms and RF Measurements

This article investigates novel adaptive self-interference cancellation solutions and the total integrated cancellation performance of a mobile single-antenna inband full-duplex transceiver. First, novel self-adaptive digital self-interference cancellation algorithms are described, with an emphasis on tracking of time-varying self-interference coupling channel in a mobile device as well as on structural ability to suppress also nonlinear self-interference with highly nonlinear mobile power amplifiers. This leads to an advanced self-adaptive nonlinear digital canceller which utilizes a novel orthogonalization procedure for nonlinear basis functions, together with low-cost LMS-based parameter learning. The achievable self-interference cancellation performance is then evaluated with actual RF measurements using mobile device scale RF components, in particular a highly nonlinear PA. The measurements also incorporate a novel self-adaptive RF cancellation circuit in order to realistically assess the total integrated cancellation performance. The reported results show that highly efficient self-interference cancellation can be achieved also in a mobile device, despite a heavily nonlinear PA and limited computing and hardware resources. The proposed cancellation solutions, when integrated together, show that 100 dB of self-interference can be cancelled using a 20 MHz LTE waveform, while the SI can be attenuated by over 110 dB with a narrower bandwidth of 1.4 MHz, all measured at 2.4 GHz ISM band. Furthermore, these results are achieved using a highly nonlinear transmitter power amplifier and fully adaptive canceller structures which can track a rapidly changing coupling channel in a mobile full-duplex device.