Downlink MIMO-NOMA for Ultra-Reliable Low-Latency Communications

© 2019 IEEE. With the emergence of the mission-critical Internet of Things applications, ultra-reliable low-latency communications are attracting a lot of attentions. Non-orthogonal multiple access (NOMA) with multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) is one of the promising candidates to enhance connectivity, reliability, and latency performance of the emerging applications. In this paper, we derive a closed-form upper bound for the delay target violation probability in the downlink MIMO-NOMA, by applying stochastic network calculus to the Mellin transforms of service processes. A key contribution is that we prove that the infinite-length Mellin transforms resulting from the non-negligible interferences of NOMA are Cauchy convergent and can be asymptotically approached by a finite truncated binomial series in the closed form. By exploiting the asymptotically accurate truncated binomial series, another important contribution is that we identify the critical condition for the optimal power allocation of MIMO-NOMA to achieve consistent latency and reliability between the receivers. The condition is employed to minimize the total transmit power, given a latency and reliability requirement of the receivers. It is also used to prove that the minimal total transmit power needs to change linearly with the path losses, to maintain latency and reliability at the receivers. This enables the power allocation for mobile MIMO-NOMA receivers to be effectively tracked. The extensive simulations corroborate the accuracy and effectiveness of the proposed model and the identified critical condition

Performance Analysis of NOMA Uplink Networks under Statistical QoS Delay Constraints

In the fifth generation and beyond (B5G), delay constraints emerge as a topic of particular interest, e.g. for ultra-reliable low latency communications (URLLC) such as autonomous vehicles and enhanced reality. In this paper, we study the performance of a two-user uplink NOMA network under statistical quality of service (QoS) delay constraints, captured through each user's effective capacity (EC). We propose novel closed-form expressions for the EC of the NOMA users and show that in the high signal to noise ratio (SNR) region, the “strong” NOMA user has a limited EC, assuming the same delay constraint as the “weak” user. We demonstrate that for the weak user, OMA achieves higher EC than NOMA at small values of the transmit SNR, while NOMA outperforms OMA in terms of EC at high SNRs. On the other hand, for the strong user the opposite is true, i.e., NOMA achieves higher EC than OMA at small SNRs, while OMA becomes more beneficial at high SNRs. This result raises the question of introducing “adaptive” OMA/NOMA policies, based jointly on the users' delay constraints as well as on the available transmit power

Link-Layer Capacity of NOMA Under Statistical Delay QoS Guarantees

In this paper, we study the achievable link-layer rate, namely, effective capacity (EC), under the per-user statistical delay quality-of-service (QoS) requirements, for a downlink nonorthogonal multiple access (NOMA) network with M users. Specifically, the M users are assumed to be divided into multiple NOMA pairs. Conventional orthogonal multiple access (OMA) then is applied for inter-NOMA-pairs multiple access. Focusing on the total link-layer rate for a downlink M-user network, we prove that OMA outperforms NOMA when the transmit signalto- noise ratio (SNR) is small. On the contrary, simulation results show that NOMA prevails over OMA at high values of SNR. Aware of the importance of a two-user NOMA network, we also theoretically investigate the impact of the transmit SNR and the delay QoS requirement on the individual EC performance and the total link-layer rate for a two-user network. Specifically, for delay-constrained and delay-unconstrained users, we prove that for the user with the stronger channel condition in a twouser network, NOMA prevails over OMA when the transmit SNR is large. On the other hand, for the user with the weaker channel condition in a two-user network, it is proved that NOMA outperforms OMA when the transmit SNR is small. Furthermore, for the user with the weaker channel condition, the individual EC in NOMA is limited to a maximum value, even if the transmit SNR goes to infinity. To confirm these insightful conclusions, the closed-form expressions for the individual EC in a two-user network, by applying NOMA or OMA, are derived for both users and then confirmed using Monte Carlo simulations

Low Latency Driven Effective Capacity Analysis for Non-Orthogonal and Orthogonal Spectrum Access

In this paper, we theoretically investigate the performance of non-orthogonal and orthogonal spectrum access protocols (more generically known as NOMA) in supporting ultra-reliable low-latency communications (URLLC). The theory of effective capacity (EC) is adopted as a suitable delay-guaranteed capacity metric to flexibly represent the users' delay requirements. Then, the total EC difference between a downlink user-paired NOMA network and a downlink orthogonal multiple access (OMA) network is analytically studied. Exact closed-form expressions and the approximated closed-forms at high signal-to-noise ratios (SNRs) are derived for both networks and validated through simulation results. It is shown that for a user pair in which two users with the most distinct channel conditions are paired together, NOMA still achieves higher total EC (compared to OMA) in high SNR regime as the user group size becomes larger, although the EC performance of both NOMA and OMA reduces with the increase in group size. It is expected that the derived analytical framework can serve as a useful reference and practical guideline for designing favourable orthogonal and nonorthogonal spectrum access schemes in supporting low-latency services

Low-Latency Driven Performance Analysis for Single-Cluster NOMA Networks

In this paper, we study the total effective capacity (EC) of single-cluster non-orthogonal multiple access (NOMA) networks and demonstrate the performance gain of single- cluster NOMA over user-paired NOMA and orthogonal multiple access (OMA). Specifically, the exact closed-form expression and an approximate closed-form expression at high signal-to- noise ratios (SNRs), in terms of the total EC, are derived for single-cluster NOMA networks. The derivations reveal that the total EC at high SNRs only relies on the statistical delay requirement of the strongest user and is independent of the other users’ delay requirements. Further, we theoretically analyze the total EC differences between single-cluster NOMA and user- paired NOMA/OMA communications and explore the impact of transmit SNR. Simulation results verify the accuracy of analytical results and further reveal that the single-cluster NOMA network achieves a greater gain in terms of the total EC, compared to the conventional OMA, when the number of users increases

Improving Frequency Reuse and Cochannel Interference Coordination in 4G HetNets

This report describes my M.A.Sc. thesis research work. The emerging 4th generation (4G) mobile systems and networks (so called 4G HetNets) are designed as multilayered cellular topology with a number of asymmetrically located, asymmetrically powered, self-organizing, and user-operated indoor small cell (e.g., pico/femto cells and WLANs) with a variety of cell architectures that are overlaid by a large cell (macro cell) with some or all interfering wireless links. These designs of 4G HetNets bring new challenges such as increased dynamics of user mobility and data traffic trespassing over the multi-layered cell boundaries. Traditional approaches of radio resource allocation and inter-cell (cochannel) interference management that are mostly centralized and static in the network core and are carried out pre-hand by the operator in 3G and lower cellular technologies, are liable to increased signaling overhead, latencies, complexities, and scalability issues and, thus, are not viable in case of 4G HetNets. In this thesis a comprehensive research study is carried out on improving the radio resource sharing and inter-cell interference management in 4G HetNets. The solution strategy exploits dynamic and adaptive channel allocation approaches such as dynamic and opportunistic spectrum access (DSA, OSA) techniques, through exploiting the spatiotemporal diversities among transmissions in orthogonal frequency division multiple access (OFDMA) based medium access in 4G HetNets. In this regards, a novel framework named as Hybrid Radio Resource Sharing (HRRS) is introduced. HRRS comprises of these two functional modules: Cognitive Radio Resource Sharing (CRRS) and Proactive Link Adaptation (PLA) scheme. A dynamic switching algorithm enables CRRS and PLA modules to adaptively invoke according to whether orthogonal channelization is to be carried out exploiting the interweave channel allocation (ICA) approach or non-orthogonal channelization is to be carried out exploiting the underlay channel allocation (UCA) approach respectively when relevant conditions regarding the traffic demand and radio resource availability are met. Benefits of CRRS scheme are identified through simulative analysis in comparison to the legacy cochannel and dedicated channel deployments of femto cells respectively. The case study and numerical analysis for PLA scheme is carried out to understand the dynamics of threshold interference ranges as function of transmit powers of MBS and FBS, relative ranges of radio entities, and QoS requirement of services with the value realization of PLA scheme.1 yea

Resource allocation in non-orthogonal multiple access technologies for 5G networks and beyond.

Doctoral Degree. University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban.The increasing demand of mobile and device connectivity poses challenging requirements for 5G wireless communications, such as high energy- and spectral-efficiency and low latency. This necessitates a shift from orthogonal multiple access (OMA) to Non-Orthogonal Multiple Access (NOMA) techniques, namely, power-domain NOMA (PD-NOMA) and code-domain NOMA (CD-NOMA). The basic idea behind NOMA schemes is to co-multiplex different users on the same resource elements (time slot, OFDMA sub-carrier, or spreading code) via power domain (PD) or code domain (CD) at the transmitter while permitting controllable interference, and their successful multi-user detection (MUD) at the receiver albeit, increased computational complexity. In this work, an analysis on the performance of the existing NOMA schemes is carried out. Furthermore, we investigate the feasibility of a proposed uplink hybrid-NOMA scheme namely power domain sparse code multiple access (PD-SCMA) that integrates PD-NOMA and CD-NOMA based sparse code multiple access (SCMA) on heterogeneous networks (HetNets). Such hybrid schemes come with resource allocation (RA) challenges namely; codebook allocation, user pairing and power allocation. Therefore, hybrid RA schemes namely: Successive Codebook Ordering Assignment (SCOA) for codebook assignment (CA), opportunistic macro cell user equipment (MUE)- small cell user equipment (SUE) pairing (OMSP) for user pairing (UP), and a QoS-aware power allocation (QAPA) for power allocation (PA) are developed for an energy efficient (EE) system. The performance of the RA schemes is analyzed alongside an analytical RA optimization algorithm. Through numerical results, the proposed schemes show significant improvements in the EE of the small cells in comparison with the prevalent schemes. Additionally, there is significant sum rate performance improvement over the conventional SCMA and PD-NOMA. Secondly, we investigate the multiplexing capacity of the hybrid PD-SCMA scheme in HetNets. Particularly, we investigate and derive closed-form solutions for codebook capacity, MUE multiplexing and power capacity bounds. The system’s performance results into low outage when the system’s point of operation is within the multiplexing bounds. To alleviate the RA challenges of such a system at the transmitter, dual parameter ranking (DPR) and alternate search method (ASM) based RA schemes are proposed. The results show significant capacity gain with DPR-RA in comparison with conventional RA schemes. Lastly, we investigate the feasibility of integrating the hybrid PD-SCMA with multiple-input multipleoutput (MIMO) technique namely, M-PD-SCMA. The attention to M-PD-SCMA resides in the need of lower number of antennas while preserving the system capacity thanks to the overload in PDSCMA. To enhance spectral efficiency and error performance we propose spatial multiplexing at the transmitter and a low complex joint MUD scheme based on successive interference cancellation (SIC) and expectation propagation algorithm (EPA) at the receiver are proposed. Numerical results exhibit performance benchmark with PD-SCMA schemes and the proposed receiver achieves guaranteed bit error rate (BER) performance with a bounded increase in the number of transmit and receive antennas. Thus, the feasibility of an M-PD-SCMA system is validated