Wideband Self-Interference Cancellation Filter for

Simultaneous Transmit and Receive Systems

Stephen J. Watt, Elias A. Alwan, Waleed Khalil, John L. Volakis
ElectroScience Laboratory, The Ohio State University
Columbus, Ohio, USA
watt.70@osu.edu

AbstractTo minimize self-interference in Simultaneous Transmit and Receive (STAR) communication systems, multi-tap analog cancelling filters are employed to emulate coupling between
transmit and receive antennas. This paper presents the design and
simulation of a fourth-order analog filter incorporating variable
delays and coefficients to approximate antenna coupling. System
simulations show that the developed analog filter provides at least
17dB interference cancellation across a 1GHz bandwidth.

I.

I NTRODUCTION

Simultaneous transmit and receive systems have traditionally

been employed for continuous wave (CW) radar systems [1].
Recently, the feasibility of STAR communications for Wi-Fi
networks has been demonstrated by several research teams
with a goal to double spectral efficiency [2,3].
A primary challenge in realizing STAR systems is highpower self-interference from the transmitter that degrades
receiver performance and can prevent reliable reception. Selfinterference cancellation (SIC) can be carried out in the 1)
propagation domain, 2) digital domain, or 3) analog domain.
Propagation domain cancellation is accomplished using techniques such as antenna cross-polarization, beamforming, or
circulators for shared-antenna systems. Digital domain cancellation typically involves probabilistic modeling of the propagation channel and hardware between the digital-to-analog
(DAC) and analog-to-digital converters (ADC) [4]. The filter
design discussed herein focuses on analog domain cancellation,
implemented by tapping the transmitted signal and applying
appropriate gain/delay adjustments using an analog circuit. The
resulting adjusted signal is then combined with the received
signal to achieve cancellation (see Fig. 1).
The proposed analog filter design aims to approximate the
frequency response of the Tx/Rx antenna coupling channel
using both variable tap coefficients and variable delays. Prior
work on filters of this type [2] implements only variable filter
coefficients, and the cancellation is limited to narrowband
signals (< 100MHz). Incorporating variable filter delays comes
with challenges but this added degree of freedom contributes
to increased cancellation bandwidth.
For the proposed design, the transmitted signal is tapped
just before the transmit antenna, ensuring power amplifier (PA)
non-idealities like distortion and phase noise are accounted
for. This tapped signal is filtered and subsequently combined
with the received signal right after the antenna to reduce the
dynamic range required by the receiver circuit hardware.

978-1-4799-7815-1/15/$31.00 2015 IEEE

129

Fig. 1. Depiction of the analog self-interference cancellation using a filter to

approximate the coupling channel frequency response. This filtered Tx signal
is then subtracted at the Rx chain for cancellation.

In this paper, a fourth-order analog self-interference cancellation filter is optimized and simulated using an AWR Virtual
System Simulator (VSS). Verification is completed using a
wideband binary phase shift keying (BPSK) signal.
II.

W IDEBAND A NALOG F ILTER D ESIGN & S IMULATION

The frequency response of the coupled signal from the

transmitter (Tx) to the receiver (Rx) antenna can be determined
using the antenna S-parameters. In this paper, simulated S21
data from Ansys HFSS are used to define the channel response,
Hcoup (j), between the Tx/Rx antennas. We can express the
filter response, Hf ilter (j), with a goal to cancel the coupled
signal by adjusting the coefficients and delays of the filter.
Hf ilter (j) = bin

N
X

bn ejn

(1)

n=1

Here N is the number of filter taps or delays, bn are the

corresponding tap coefficient values, n are the delays between
taps, and is the angular frequency of interest. We note that
the coefficient values, bn , are set by the attenuation levels
of each tap, while the tap delays, n , are implemented by

AP-S 2015

Fig. 2. Multiple-tap analog interference cancellation filter using microstrip

lines (delays) and attenuators/coefficients. Optimized design parameters shown
for a 4th order filter.

microstrip delay lines between taps. Also, the attenuation

coefficient bin immediately reduces the strength of the tapped
interfering signal. Further, it reduces the attenuation values
required at subsequent taps.
The coefficient values, bin and bn , are determined by converting the tap attenuation levels from logarithmic to linear
scale. The delays between taps, n , are given as

n = Ln tpd = Ln 85 0.475r + 0.67

(2)
where Ln is the microstrip line length in inches, r is the
relative permittivity of the filter substrate, and tpd is the
propagation delay of the microstrip line in picoseconds per
inch [5].
A filter order of N = 4 is chosen as a trade-off between
the desired cancellation bandwidth and circuit complexity. This
filter is built in ADS with attenuators and delay line lengths
optimized to achieve the following objectives:

|Hf ilter (j)| = |Hcoup (j)| mag

(3)

Hf ilter (j) = Hcoup (j) phase

(4)

where mag and phase are the maximum allowed magnitude and phase errors, respectively. Choosing mag = 0.1dB
and phase = 1 implies 2.3% and 0.028% errors for the
magnitude and phase, respectively. With the above objectives
in mind, the total error and the self-interference cancellation
from the filter are given by
q
Ef ilter = mag 2 + phase 2 = 2.35%
(5)
SICf itler = 10 log(Ef ilter ) = 16.3dB

(6)

It is assumed that the filtered signal is subtracted after the

Rx antenna without introducing additional magnitude or phase
errors.
Simulations in ADS indicate that stricter optimization goals
would require reduced bandwidth. A trade-off study led us
to set the self-interference cancellation to 16.3dB. For filter
optimization, the attenuator values, bin and bn , and delay line
lengths, Ln , are varied iteratively using a gradient optimization
method [6] until (3) and (4) are satisfied in the bandwidth of

130

Fig. 3. Performance of the 4th order cancellation filter demonstrating at least

17dB cancellation across a 1GHz bandwidth.

interest (Low - High ). The selected gradient method aims to

minimize the least-squares error function:
High

EF =

|Hf ilter (j) Hcoup (j)|2

(7)

Low

The devised cancellation filter is built in VSS (see Fig. 2)

using the optimized design values. A BPSK signal with 1GHz
bandwidth and carrier frequency of 5GHz is passed through
both the filter and antenna coupling. The filtered signal is
then subtracted from the coupled signal, resulting in peak
cancellation of 52dB with at least 17dB cancellation for 1GHz
(4.44GHz - 5.44GHz) as shown in Fig. 3. The provided
simulation is within 0.7dB of calculation.
III. R EMARKS
We presented design optimization of a multi-tap analog
filter with variable delay lines and attenuation levels for selfinterference cancellation in simultaneous transmit and receive
(STAR) systems. Gradient optimization in Advanced Design
System (ADS) with Virtual System Simulator (VSS) results
show at least 17dB interference cancellation across a 1GHz
bandwidth. Particular attention of this work is on wideband
realization. Next steps will focus on filter hardware implementation and cancellation verification.
R EFERENCES
[1]
[2]
[3]
[4]

[5]
[6]

A. Stove, Linear FMCW radar techniques, Radar and Signal Processing, IEE Proceedings F, vol. 139, no. 5, pp. 343350, Oct 1992.
D. Bharadia and S. Katti, Full Duplex MIMO Radios, Self, vol. 1,
no. A2, p. A3, 2014.
M. Duarte, Full-duplex Wireless: Design, Implementation and Characterization, Ph.D. dissertation, Rice University, 2012.
A. Sabharwal, P. Schniter, D. Guo, D. Bliss, S. Rangarajan, and R. Wichman, In-Band Full-Duplex Wireless: Challenges and Opportunities,
IEEE Journal on Selected Areas in Communications, vol. 32, no. 9, pp.
16371652, Sept 2014.
W. R. Blood, MECL System Design Handbook, 1988.
Z. Li, P. Papalambros, and J. Volakis, Designing Broad-Band Patch
Antennas Using the Sequential Quadratic Programming Method, IEEE
Transactions on Antennas and Propagation, vol. 45, no. 11, pp. 1689
1692, Nov 1997.