Opportunistic Scheduling for Full-Duplex Uplink-Downlink Networks

Abstract: We study opportunistic scheduling and the sum capacity of cellular networks with a full-duplex multi-antenna base station and a large number of single-antenna half-duplex users. Simultaneous uplink and downlink over the same band results in uplink-to-downlink interference, degrading performance. We present a simple opportunistic joint uplink-downlink scheduling algorithm that exploits multiuser diversity and treats interference as noise. We show that in homogeneous networks, our algorithm achieves the same sum capacity as what would have been achieved if there was no uplink-to-downlink interference, asymptotically in the number of users. The algorithm does not require interference CSI at the base station or uplink users. It is also shown that for a simple class of heterogeneous networks without sufficient channel diversity, it is not possible to achieve the corresponding interference-free system capacity. We discuss the potential for using device-to-device side-channels to overcome this limitation in heterogeneous networks.