Cross-Layer Protocol Design for Distributed Full-Duplex Network

The idea of in-band full-duplex (FD) communications revives in recent years owing to the significant progress in the self-interference cancellation and hardware design techniques, which offers the potential to double spectral efficiency. However, the adaptations from lower to upper layers are highly demanded in the design of FD communication systems. In this paper, we first propose a novel medium access control (MAC) protocol on a single channel using FD techniques that allows transmitters to monitor the channel usage while transmitting, and backoff when collision happens. Specifically, imperfect sensing brought by residual self-interference (RSI) in the physical layer is taken into account in the design of the protocol, and throughput is analytical derived. Then, we extend the protocol to multichannel scenario and propose a multichannel selection mechanism based on the rate and occupancy history of each channel for FD users. Simulation results show the effectiveness of the channel selection protocol and indicate that the total throughput of the proposed FD-MAC protocol can significantly outperforms the greedy channel selection strategy based on the CSMA access mechanism.