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Engineers Develop Full Duplex Wireless Technology

Melissa Duarte with full duplex device (Rice Univ.)

Graduate student Melissa Duarte with a full-duplex test device (Rice Univ.)

Computer engineering researchers at Rice University in Houston have developed a technology that makes it possible for wireless devices to transmit and receive signals simultaneously and on the same frequency. This “full-duplex” capability can, in effect, double the capacity of wireless networks without adding any more cell phone towers.

Mobile phones and wireless data devices can today send and receive simultaneously, but it requires separate frequencies, one for sending and one for receiving. The solution devised by Ashutosh Sabharwal, electrical and computer engineering professor, and his colleagues at Rice, adds an extra antenna and software enhancements to the mobile device. This past summer, the Rice engineers demonstrated the technology with a signal quality 10 times better than shown in previous results.

While a full-duplex solution has been theoretically possible for some time, it has in the past required significant changes in wireless device hardware, which discouraged implementation by developers. In Sabharwal’s solution, the second antenna fits into current equipment designs, thus making it more feasible for manufacturers.

The Rice team adapted the wireless industry’s multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) antenna technology, which uses several antennas to improve overall performance. In the solution, the signals sent from the two antennas cancel each other out locally, freeing up the antennas at the sending end, while the signal is still sent over the network and received at the other end.

Sabharwal’s team has taken the idea one step further and also achieved asynchronous full-duplex. In this mode, one wireless network user can start receiving one signal while transmitting a signal of its own. Asynchronous transmission can enable wireless carriers to maximize traffic on their networks, and Rice’s team is the first to demonstrate the technology.

The Rice engineers plan to roll out their full-duplex solutions on the university’s wireless open-access research platform (WARP), used by a number of institutions worldwide and supported by several equipment and network vendors. Despite the achievements in technology, Sabharwal expects more hard work lies ahead. “The bigger change will be developing new wireless standards for full-duplex,” says Sabharwal. “I expect people may start seeing this when carriers upgrade to 4.5G or 5G networks in just a few years.”

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