Multiple Access in Aerial Networks: From Orthogonal and Non-Orthogonal to Rate-Splitting

Recently, interest on the utilization of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) has aroused. Specifically, UAVs can be used in cellular networks as aerial users for delivery, surveillance, rescue search, or as an aerial base station (aBS) for communication with ground users in remote uncovered areas or in dense environments requiring prompt high capacity. Aiming to satisfy the high requirements of wireless aerial networks, several multiple access techniques have been investigated. In particular, space-division multiple access(SDMA) and power-domain non-orthogonal multiple access (NOMA) present promising multiplexing gains for aerial downlink and uplink. Nevertheless, these gains are limited as they depend on the conditions of the environment. Hence, a generalized scheme has been recently proposed, called rate-splitting multiple access (RSMA), which is capable of achieving better spectral efficiency gains compared to SDMA and NOMA. In this paper, we present a comprehensive survey of key multiple access technologies adopted for aerial networks, where aBSs are deployed to serve ground users. Since there have been only sporadic results reported on the use of RSMA in aerial systems, we aim to extend the discussion on this topic by modelling and analyzing the weighted sum-rate performance of a two-user downlink network served by an RSMA-based aBS. Finally, related open issues and future research directions are exposed.Comment: 16 pages, 6 figures, submitted to IEEE Journa

Resource allocation for NOMA wireless systems

Power-domain non-orthogonal multiple access (NOMA) has been widely recognized as a promising candidate for the next generation of wireless communication systems. By applying superposition coding at the transmitter and successive interference cancellation at the receiver, NOMA allows multiple users to access the same time-frequency resource in power domain. This way, NOMA not only increases the system’s spectral and energy efficiencies, but also supports more users when compared with the conventional orthogonal multiple access (OMA). Meanwhile, improved user fairness can be achieved by NOMA. Nonetheless, the promised advantages of NOMA cannot be realized without proper resource allocation. The main resources in wireless communication systems include time, frequency, space, code and power. In NOMA systems, multiple users are accommodated in each time/frequency/code resource block (RB), forming a NOMA cluster. As a result, how to group the users into NOMA clusters and allocate the power is of significance. A large number of studies have been carried out for developing efficient power allocation (PA) algorithms in single-input single-output (SISO) scenarios with fixed user clustering. To fully reap the gain of NOMA, the design of joint PA and user clustering is required. Moreover, the study of PA under multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) systems still remains at an incipient stage. In this dissertation, we develop novel algorithms to allocate resource for both SISO-NOMA and MIMO-NOMA systems. More specifically, Chapter 2 compares the system capacity of MIMO-NOMA with MIMO-OMA. It is proved analytically that MIMO-NOMA outperforms MIMO-OMA in terms of both sum channel capacity and ergodic sum capacity when there are multiple users in a cluster. Furthermore, it is demonstrated that the more users are admitted to a cluster, the lower is the achieved sum rate, which illustrates the tradeoff between the sum rate and maximum number of admitted users. Chapter 3 addresses the PA problem for a general multi-cluster multi-user MIMONOMA system to maximize the system energy efficiency (EE). First, a closed-form solution is derived for the corresponding sum rate (SE) maximization problem. Then, the EE maximization problem is solved by applying non-convex fractional programming. Chapter 4 investigates the energy-efficient joint user-RB association and PA problem for an uplink hybrid NOMA-OMA system. The considered problem requires to jointly optimize the user clustering, channel assignment and power allocation. To address this hard problem, a many-to-one bipartite graph is first constructed considering the users and RBs as the two sets of nodes. Based on swap matching, a joint user-RB association and power allocation scheme is proposed, which converges within a limited number of iterations. Moreover, for the power allocation under a given user-RB association, a low complexity optimal PA algorithm is proposed. Furthermore, Chapter 5 focuses on securing the confidential information of massive MIMO-NOMA networks by exploiting artificial noise (AN). An uplink training scheme is first proposed, and on this basis, the base station precodes the confidential information and injects the AN. Following this, the ergodic secrecy rate is derived for downlink transmission. Additionally, PA algorithms are proposed to maximize the SE and EE of the system. Finally, conclusions are drawn and possible extensions to resource allocation in NOMA systems are discussed in Chapter 6

Investigation on Evolving Single-Carrier NOMA into Multi-Carrier NOMA in 5G

© 2013 IEEE. Non-orthogonal multiple access (NOMA) is one promising technology, which provides high system capacity, low latency, and massive connectivity, to address several challenges in the fifth-generation wireless systems. In this paper, we first reveal that the NOMA techniques have evolved from single-carrier NOMA (SC-NOMA) into multi-carrier NOMA (MC-NOMA). Then, we comprehensively investigated on the basic principles, enabling schemes and evaluations of the two most promising MC-NOMA techniques, namely sparse code multiple access (SCMA) and pattern division multiple access (PDMA). Meanwhile, we consider that the research challenges of SCMA and PDMA might be addressed with the stimulation of the advanced and matured progress in SC-NOMA. Finally, yet importantly, we investigate the emerging applications, and point out the future research trends of the MC-NOMA techniques, which could be straightforwardly inspired by the various deployments of SC-NOMA

A Tutorial on Clique Problems in Communications and Signal Processing

Since its first use by Euler on the problem of the seven bridges of K\"onigsberg, graph theory has shown excellent abilities in solving and unveiling the properties of multiple discrete optimization problems. The study of the structure of some integer programs reveals equivalence with graph theory problems making a large body of the literature readily available for solving and characterizing the complexity of these problems. This tutorial presents a framework for utilizing a particular graph theory problem, known as the clique problem, for solving communications and signal processing problems. In particular, the paper aims to illustrate the structural properties of integer programs that can be formulated as clique problems through multiple examples in communications and signal processing. To that end, the first part of the tutorial provides various optimal and heuristic solutions for the maximum clique, maximum weight clique, and $k$-clique problems. The tutorial, further, illustrates the use of the clique formulation through numerous contemporary examples in communications and signal processing, mainly in maximum access for non-orthogonal multiple access networks, throughput maximization using index and instantly decodable network coding, collision-free radio frequency identification networks, and resource allocation in cloud-radio access networks. Finally, the tutorial sheds light on the recent advances of such applications, and provides technical insights on ways of dealing with mixed discrete-continuous optimization problems

Power-efficient resource allocation in NOMA virtualized wireless networks

In this paper, we address a power-efficient resource allocation problem in virtualized wireless networks (VWNs) using non-orthogonal multiple access (NOMA). In this set-up, the resources of one base station (BS) are shared among different service providers (slices), where the minimum reserved rate is considered for each slice for guaranteeing their isolation. The formulated resource allocation problem aiming to minimize the total transmit power subject to the isolation constraints is non-convex and suffers from high computational complexity. By applying complementary geometric programming (CGP) to convert the non-convex problem into the convex form, we develop an efficient iterative approach with low computational complexity to solve the proposed problem. Illustrative simulation results on the performance evaluation of VWN using OFDMA and NOMA indicate significant performance improvement in the VWN when NOMA is used

NOMA-Based UAV-Aided Networks for Emergency Communications

High spectrum efficiency (SE) requirement and massive connections are the main challenges for the fifth generation (5G) and beyond 5G (B5G) wireless networks, especially for the case when Internet of Things (IoT) devices are located in a disaster area. Non-orthogonal multiple access (NOMA)-based unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV)-aided network is emerging as a promising technique to overcome the above challenges. In this paper, an emergency communications framework of NOMA-based UAV-aided networks is established, where the disasters scenarios can be divided into three broad categories that have named emergency areas, wide areas and dense areas. First, a UAV-enabled uplink NOMA system is established to gather information from IoT devices in emergency areas. Then, a joint UAV deployment and resource allocation scheme for a multi-UAV enabled NOMA system is developed to extend the UAV coverage for IoT devices in wide areas. Furthermore, a UAV equipped with an antenna array has been considered to provide wireless service for multiple devices that are densely distributed in disaster areas. Simulation results are provided to validate the effectiveness of the above three schemes. Finally, potential research directions and challenges are also highlighted and discussed