Submitted by “The typical way to increase capacity on a network is to add more infrastructure, but that’s an expensive undertaking. It can also be time consuming and frustrating for network operators who have to get permission to put up new towers, or dig up the ground to lay cables. This is especially true in heavily populated areas where more antennas and traffic disruption are not what anyone wants to see. Rice University has come up with a groundbreaking solution, though. One that promises to at least double the capacity of existing networks with the addition of minimal extra hardware. That solution is full duplex wireless communication. This isn’t a new concept, but one that hasn’t been possible until now due to the inherent obstacles it throws up.”
I can see this having an effect on voice calls, where the uplink and downlink data are roughly the same, however with data, I think almost all the data is going to the mobile phone and this change will have a minimal effect on this component.
So what percentage of the bandwidth is data?
This doesn’t address the real problems.
1. 3G networks are already overloaded by people using them as their everyday internet connection, watching Youtube etc. Allowing higher throughput on existing infrastructure will make the problem worse, not better.
2. 3G connections are still prone to “dropping out” occasionally; more likely in the middle of an important download. If Rice University can figure out a way of making 3G networks more reliable, THEN I’ll be impressed. Otherwise, next loser.
Uh… no. It at MOST doubles the capacity. If it works PERFECTLY, you COULD have the same amount being transmitted as received. If you don’t need to do one or the other, or if it’s not quite perfect on the canceling, you’ll have less than double, all the way down to (worst case) no more than you had before.