The Degrees of Freedom of the $K$-pair-user Full-Duplex Two-way Interference Channel with and without a MIMO Relay

In a K-pair-user two-way interference channel (TWIC), 2K messages and 2K transmitters/receivers form a K-user IC in the forward direction (K messages) and another K-user IC in the backward direction which operate in full-duplex mode. All nodes may interact, or adapt inputs to past received signals. We derive a new outer bound to demonstrate that the optimal degrees of freedom (DoF, also known as the multiplexing gain) is K: full-duplex operation doubles the DoF, but interaction does not further increase the DoF. We next characterize the DoF of the K-pair-user TWIC with a MIMO, full-duplex relay. If the relay is non-causal/instantaneous (at time k forwards a function of its received signals up to time k) and has 2K antennas, we demonstrate a one-shot scheme where the relay mitigates all interference to achieve the interference-free 2K DoF. In contrast, if the relay is causal (at time k forwards a function of its received signals up to time k− 1), we show that a full-duplex MIMO relay cannot increase the DoF of the K-pair-user TWIC beyond K, as if no relay or interaction is present. We comment on reducing the number of antennas at the instantaneous relay.