Call for Papers: IEEE Wireless Communications Special Issue on Full Duplex Communications Theory, Standardization and Practice

Conventional half-duplex wireless systems rely on transmitting and receiving in non-overlapping time slots or frequency channels. Accordingly, time and frequency division duplexing are key enabling technologies to realize bidirectional communications between transmitting and receiving nodes in cellular and wireless local area networks. With increasing user demands, these conventional systems are challenged by meeting spectral efficiency, throughput and latency requirements. Full duplex (FD) communications – that is supporting the concurrent transmission and reception in a single time/frequency channel – has the potential of improving the attainable spectral efficiency and throughput and reducing latency.

Due to recent advances in antenna hardware and signal processing techniques specifically in multiple input multiple output (MIMO) systems applied to radio frequency and baseband signals, self-interference (SI) suppression of 80-110 dB is becoming possible. This high level of SI suppression is enabled by employing techniques in the analog, digital, propagation and spatial domains. Indeed, combining directional communications and their capabilities of separating radio signals in the spatial domain with advanced SI suppression methods that operate in the analog and digital domains is attracting a large interest by the research and engineering communities.

Full-duplex radios facilitating simultaneous transmission and reception (STAR) enable new military communication applications as well. In addition to enhanced spectral efficiency, the STAR capability can give a technical advantage for armed forces by enabling their radio transceivers to conduct electronic warfare while receiving or transmitting information signals in the same frequency band. Also, advancements in SI cancellation technologies are expected to improve the performance of continuous-wave radar systems in terms of operational range, since enhanced SI cancellation allows to increase the transmit power.

In addition to various wireless communication scenarios and applications, there are a couple of other segments that have adopted full duplex techniques, including SI cancellation. The cable distribution node standards have incorporated SI cancellation and echo cancellation as DOCSIS -FDX to improve upstream throughputs. The digital subscriber line specifications (such as G.FAST) are also considering such techniques for the next revision of the standard called G.mgFAST. Also, continuous-wave radars apply SI cancellation to prevent the transmitted signal from leaking directly into the receiver chain. SI may also be applied to acoustic signals, such as when hearing aids use blind SI cancellation to suppress acoustic feedback signals.

The purpose of this special issue of IEEE Wireless Communications is to provide an overview of the status of FD wireless and wireline communications, report recent advances and identify open research and development challenges. Topics of interest for this special issue include but are not limited to:

  • Advanced self-interference cancellation techniques for full-duplex
  • Advanced antenna and transceiver designs for full-duplex
  • Multiple input multiple output full-duplex transceiver design
  • Performance analysis of full-duplex transceivers, systems and networks
  • New full-duplex multiple input multiple output techniques, beamforming and spatial multiplexing for multiuser interference cancellation
  • Non-orthogonal multiple access and full-duplex techniques
  • Physical layer security and full-duplex techniques
  • Full-duplex relaying and cooperative communications
  • Cognitive radio and full-duplex techniques
  • Full-duplex techniques with wireless power and energy harvesting
  • Full-duplex device-to-device and machine-to-machine communications
  • Full-duplex small cell deployments and heterogeneous networks
  • Ultra-reliable low-latency medium access control and routing protocols for full-duplex networks
  • Cross-layer design and virtualization for full-duplex networks
  • Resource allocation, medium access control, and scheduling for full-duplex systems
  • Channel measurements and channel modeling for full duplex
  • Experimental evaluation of full-duplex transceivers and networks
  • Full-duplex for novel radar applications
  • Self-interference cancellation for military applications

Prospective authors should prepare their submissions in accordance with the rules specified in the Information for Authors of the IEEE Wireless Communications guidelines (https://www.comsoc.org/publications/magazines/ieee-wireless-communications/paper-submission).
Authors should submit a PDF version of their complete manuscript to https://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/ieee-wcm.


The timetable is as follows:

  • Manuscript Submission Deadline: 15 May 2020
  • Initial Decision Date: 1 August 2020
  • Revised Manuscript Due: 1 September 2020
  • Final Decision Date: 1 October 2020
  • Final Manuscript Due: 1 November 2020
  • Publication Date: February 2021

Guest Editors:

Gabor Fodor, Ericsson Research and KTH Royal Institute of Technology, Sweden, Gabor.Fodor@ericsson.com

Chan-Byoung Chae, Yonsei University, Korea, cbchae@yonsei.ac.kr

Risto Wichman, Aalto University, Finland, Risto.Wichman@aalto.fi

Ashutosh Sabharwal, Rice University, USA, ashu@rice.edu

Raghu Rao, GenXComm, USA, raghu.rao@genxcomminc.com

Hirley Alves, University of Oulu, Finland, Hirley.Alves@oulu.fi

Himal A. Suraweera, University of Peradeniya, Sri Lanka, himal@ee.pdn.ac.lk