Open-Source Software-Based Beyond 5G Emulator for Evaluating Dynamic Full-Duplex Cellular System

The increasing demand for faster and more efficient communication technologies has highlighted the in-band full-duplex (IBFD) cellular system as a key advancement for the upcoming 6th-generation mobile communication (6G) systems. Due to the limited availability and high demand for frequency resources, maximizing the utilization of existing frequencies is crucial. The dynamic full-duplex cellular (DDC) system addresses this challenge by introducing IBFD, which simultaneously transmits and receives signals on the same in-band frequency, thereby having the potential to double the spectrum efficiency. However, existing studies on the DDC system have been evaluated using system-level simulations that simplify physical layer processing and focus solely on the MAC layer scheduler, leaving their practical applicability to actual 5G systems undetermined. To address this gap, we present a DDC system emulator developed using OpenAirInterface (OAI), which emulates the complete 5G system from the physical layer to the 5G core network. We propose higher-layer signaling to facilitate IBFD transmission within the DDC system and create a single-cell emulator to evaluate its applicability for future cellular systems beyond 5G. Our results indicate that the DDC system can enhance spectral efficiency while maintaining compatibility with existing 5G infrastructure, paving the way for future 6G implementations. Specifically, our evaluation example shows a 19% increase in downlink throughput, underscoring the practical advantages of the DDC system.