Self-Interference Cancellation in a Full-Duplex MIMO Relay Under Non-Linear Hardware Impairments

Full-duplex communication is a promising technique that enables concurrent transmission and reception of a signal, consequently improving the spectral efficiency. This is achieved by deploying a multiple antenna unit wherein a subset of antennas is used for transmitting the signal, whereas the remaining antennas are used for receiving the signal. However, this rise to a new challenge called self-interference, which can severely degrade system performance in the presence of non-linear hardware impairments and noise. In this study, we analyze the effects of hardware impairments on the bit error rate (BER) performance of a Full duplex transceiver that is used as a relay. For this, we present a behavioral model-based framework that models the non-linearities in multiple antenna set-up-based full-duplex relay constituting mixers, oscillators, and power amplifiers. We use the proposed model to characterize the impairments and evaluate the BER performance. The results highlight the impact of hardware impairments on the BER and provide a performance comparison with an existing scheme. The findings of this study can guide the design and optimization of full-duplex systems by considering hardware impairments and improving the overall system performance.