FINDING THE RIGHT BALANCE OF FULL-DUPLEX AND HALF-DUPLEX RADIOS

摘要

Full-duplex radios, which can transmit and receive signals on the same frequency at the same time, have benefits that read like the bottles of snake oil. They can instantly double the data capacity of cellular networks, and allow smartphones and tablets to upload and download things like videos simultaneously. But the fine print warns of dangerous side effects. These radios have a tendency to absorb echoing signals from the transmitter, vastly increasing the amount of interference in the network. That, however, is not an issue for half-duplex radios, the hardware used in most cellular base stations and cell phones, which only send signals in one direction at any given time.