Full-Duplex Operations in Wireless Powered Communication Networks

In this paper, a wireless powered communication network (WPCN) consisting of a hybrid access point (H-AP) and multiple user equipment (UE), all of which operate in full-duplex (FD), is described. We first propose a transceiver structure that enables FD operation of each UE to simultaneously receive energy in the downlink (DL) and transmit information in the uplink (UL). We then provide an energy usage model in the proposed UE transceiver that accounts for the energy leakage from the transmit chain to the receive chain. It is shown that the throughput of an FD WPCN using the proposed FD UE (FD-WPCN-FD) can be maximized by optimal allocation of the UL transmission time to the UE by solving a convex optimization problem. Simulation results reveal that the use of the proposed FD UE efficiently improves the throughput of a WPCN with a practical self-interference cancellation capability at the H-AP. Compared to the WPCN with FD H-AP and half-duplex (HD) UE, FD-WPCN-FD achieved an 18% throughput gain. In addition, the throughput of FD-WPCN-FD was shown to be 25% greater than that of WPCN in which an H-AP and UE operated in HD.