Toward URLLC: A Full Duplex Relay System with Self-Interference Utilization or Cancellation

Ultra-reliable low-latency communication (URLLC) is one of the key use cases of 5G wireless communications to facilitate specific application scenarios with stringent latency and reliability demands, such as industrial automation and Tactile Internet. A full duplex (FD) relay with simultaneous transmission and reception in the same frequency band is an effective approach to enhance the reliability of cell-edge user terminals by significantly suppressing self-interference (SI). However, the signal processing latency at FD relay due to SI cancellation, referred to as relaying latency, takes a significant part in the end-to-end latency, and therefore should be minimized, while guaranteeing high reliability. In this article, we first present an up-to-date overview of the end-to-end latency for an FD relay system, addressing physical layer challenges. We investigate the possible solutions in the literature to achieve the goal of URLLC. The efficient solution is to allow a simple amplify-and-forward FD relay mode with low-complexity SI radio frequency and analog cancellations, and process the residual SI alongside the desired signal at the base station in an adaptive manner, rather than being cancelled at relay in the digital domain. Also, the residual SI can be utilized at the base station to enhance the reliability and degree of freedom in signal processing, not necessarily being cancelled as much as possible. The FD relay assisted system with adaptive SI utilization or cancellation enables extended network coverage, enhanced reliability, and reduced latency compared to the existing overview work.