Search

In this paper, an advanced duplex scheme called cross-division duplex (XDD) is proposed to enhance uplink (UL) coverage in time division duplex (TDD) carriers by utilizing self-interference cancellation (SIC) capability at a base station. With XDD, it is possible to combine TDD’s ability to efficiently handle asymmetric UL and downlink (DL) traffic with frequency division duplex’s coverage advantage. To do so, XDD simultaneously operates UL and DL on the same TDD carrier but on different frequency resources. Such operation leads to severe interference on the received UL signal at the base station which requires two levels of SIC implementation; antenna and digital SIC. More than 50 dB of interference is removed through the antenna SIC using electromagnetic barriers between the transmitting and receiving antennas. The remaining interference is removed by the digital SIC based on estimating the non-linear channel of the circuit at the receiver baseband. It is verified by simulation and analysis that with the proposed XDD, the UL coverage can be improved by up to 2.37 times that of TDD. To check the feasibility of XDD, a Proof-of-Concept was developed where it was observed that the benefits of XDD can indeed be realized using the proposed SIC techniques.

Battery life of mobile terminals has been a key performance indicator (KPI) for user experience since the early days of wireless communications. This KPI has become even more important for fifth generation (5G) cellular systems due to higher requirements such as the support of carrier frequency up to 100 GHz, carrier bandwidth up to 400 MHz, peak data rate up to 20 Gbps, latency as small as 1 ms, and enhanced receiver performance. In response, various power saving techniques have been studied and implemented so that devices can be used over a longer period without noticeable decrease in performance. In this article, we provide a comprehensive overview of the latest terminal power saving techniques which were specified in 5G New Radio (NR) over the last couple of years. The key feature and benefit of each power saving technique is analyzed with simulation results under various traffic scenarios. In addition, some of the candidate techniques for the next phase of NR on terminal power saving enhancement are proposed targeting not only conventional data services but also various vertical services.