On Self-Interference Cancellation and Non-Idealities Suppression in Full-Duplex Radio Transceivers

One of the major impediments in the design and operation of a full-duplex radio transceiver is the presence of self-interference (SI), that is, the transceiver's transmitted signal, 60-100 dB stronger than the desired signal of interest. To reduce the SI signal below the receiver's sensitivity before coupling it to the receiver, radio frequency (RF)/analog domain cancellation is carried out. Even after SI cancellation to the required level in the analog domain, the residual SI signal still exits and lowers the transceiver's performance. For residual SI cancellation, a digital domain cancellation is carried out. RF impairments are the major obstacle in the residual SI cancellation path in the digital domain. Linearization of RF impairments such as IQ mixer imbalance in the transmitter and receiver chain, non-linear PA with memory, and non-linear LNA are also carried out. Performance evaluation of the proposed techniques is carried out based on SINR, the power of different SI signal components, PSD, output to input relationship, SNR vs. BER, spectrum analyzer, constellation diagram, and link budget analysis. The proposed techniques provide attractive RF/analog SI cancellation of up to 80-90 dB, digital residual SI cancellation of up to 35 to 40 dB, total SI cancellation of up to 110 to 130 dB, and an SINR improvement of up to 50 dB.

Automated summary

One of the major impediments in the design and operation of a full-duplex radio transceiver is self-interference (SI). RF/analog domain cancellation is carried out to reduce SI signal, with residual SI cancellation done in the digital domain to improve the transceiver's performance. Linearization of RF impairments and performance evaluation based on various parameters are conducted to achieve significant SI cancellation and SINR improvement.