Beamforming Techniques for Non-Orthogonal Multiple Access in 5G Cellular Networks

In this paper, we develop various beamforming techniques for downlink transmission for multiple-input single-output (MISO) non-orthogonal multiple access (NOMA) systems. First, a beamforming approach with perfect channel state information (CSI) is investigated to provide the required quality of service (QoS) for all users. Taylor series approximation and semidefinite relaxation (SDR) techniques are employed to reformulate the original non-convex power minimization problem to a tractable one. Further, a fairness-based beamforming approach is proposed through a max-min formulation to maintain fairness between users. Next, we consider a robust scheme by incorporating channel uncertainties, where the transmit power is minimized while satisfying the outage probability requirement at each user. Through exploiting the SDR approach, the original non-convex problem is reformulated in a linear matrix inequality (LMI) form to obtain the optimal solution. Numerical results demonstrate that the robust scheme can achieve better performance compared to the non-robust scheme in terms of the rate satisfaction ratio. Further, simulation results confirm that NOMA consumes a little over half transmit power needed by OMA for the same data rate requirements. Hence, NOMA has the potential to significantly improve the system performance in terms of transmit power consumption in future 5G networks and beyond.Comment: accepted to publish in IEEE Transactions on Vehicular Technolog

Chance Constrained Robust Downlink Beamforming in Multicell Networks

We introduce a downlink robust optimization approach that minimizes a combination of total transmit power by a multiple antenna base station (BS) within a cell and the resulting aggregate inter-cell interference (ICI) power on the users of the other cells. This optimization is constrained to assure that a set of signal-to-interference-plus-noise ratio (SINR) targets are met at user terminals with certain outage probabilities. The outages are due to the uncertainties that naturally emerge in the estimation of channel covariance matrices between a BS and its intra-cell local users as well as the other users of the other cells. We model these uncertainties using random matrices, analyze their statistical behaviour and formulate a tractable probabilistic approach to the design of optimal robust downlink beamforming vectors. The proposed approach reformulates the original intractable non-convex problem in a semidefinite programming (SDP) form with linear matrix inequality (LMI) constraints. The resulting SDP formulation is convex and numerically tractable under the standard rank relaxation. We compare the proposed chance-constrained approach against two different robust design schemes as well as the worst-case robustness. The simulation results confirm better power efficiency and higher resilience against channel uncertainties of the proposed approach in realistic scenarios

Chance constrained robust downlink beamforming in multicell networks

We introduce a downlink robust optimization approach that minimizes a combination of total transmit power by a multiple antenna base station (BS) within a cell and the resulting aggregate inter-cell interference (ICI) power on the users of the other cells. This optimization is constrained to assure that a set of signal-to-interference-plus-noise ratio (SINR) targets are met at user terminals with certain outage probabilities. The outages are due to the uncertainties that naturally emerge in the estimation of channel covariance matrices between a BS and its intra-cell local users as well as the other users of the other cells. We model these uncertainties using random matrices, analyze their statistical behaviour and formulate a tractable probabilistic approach to the design of optimal robust downlink beamforming vectors. The proposed approach reformulates the original intractable non-convex problem in a semidefinite programming (SDP) form with linear matrix inequality (LMI) constraints. The resulting SDP formulation is convex and numerically tractable under the standard rank relaxation. We compare the proposed chance-constrained approach against two different robust design schemes as well as the worst-case robustness. The simulation results confirm better power efficiency and higher resilience against channel uncertainties of the proposed approach in realistic scenarios

Distributed Multicell Beamforming Design Approaching Pareto Boundary with Max-Min Fairness

This paper addresses coordinated downlink beamforming optimization in multicell time-division duplex (TDD) systems where a small number of parameters are exchanged between cells but with no data sharing. With the goal to reach the point on the Pareto boundary with max-min rate fairness, we first develop a two-step centralized optimization algorithm to design the joint beamforming vectors. This algorithm can achieve a further sum-rate improvement over the max-min optimal performance, and is shown to guarantee max-min Pareto optimality for scenarios with two base stations (BSs) each serving a single user. To realize a distributed solution with limited intercell communication, we then propose an iterative algorithm by exploiting an approximate uplink-downlink duality, in which only a small number of positive scalars are shared between cells in each iteration. Simulation results show that the proposed distributed solution achieves a fairness rate performance close to the centralized algorithm while it has a better sum-rate performance, and demonstrates a better tradeoff between sum-rate and fairness than the Nash Bargaining solution especially at high signal-to-noise ratio.Comment: 8 figures. To Appear in IEEE Trans. Wireless Communications, 201

Spectral, Energy and Computation Efficiency in Future 5G Wireless Networks

Wireless technology has revolutionized the way people communicate. From first generation, or 1G, in the 1980s to current, largely deployed 4G in the 2010s, we have witnessed not only a technological leap, but also the reformation of associated applications. It is expected that 5G will become commercially available in 2020. 5G is driven by ever-increasing demands for high mobile traffic, low transmission delay, and massive numbers of connected devices. Today, with the popularity of smart phones, intelligent appliances, autonomous cars, and tablets, communication demands are higher than ever, especially when it comes to low-cost and easy-access solutions. Existing communication architecture cannot fulfill 5G’s needs. For example, 5G requires connection speeds up to 1,000 times faster than current technology can provide. Also, from transmitter side to receiver side, 5G delays should be less than 1ms, while 4G targets a 5ms delay speed. To meet these requirements, 5G will apply several disruptive techniques. We focus on two of them: new radio and new scheme. As for the former, we study the non-orthogonal multiple access (NOMA) and as for the latter, we use mobile edge computing (MEC). Traditional communication systems allow users to communicate alternatively, which clearly avoids inter-user interference, but also caps the connection speed. NOMA, on the other hand, allows multiple users to transmit simultaneously. While NOMA will inevitably cause excessive interference, we prove such interference can be mitigated by an advanced receiver side technique. NOMA has existed on the research frontier since 2013. Since that time, both academics and industry professionals have extensively studied its performance. In this dissertation, our contribution is to incorporate NOMA with several potential schemes, such as relay, IoT, and cognitive radio networks. Furthermore, we reviewed various limitations on NOMA and proposed a more practical model. In the second part, MEC is considered. MEC is a transformation from the previous cloud computing system. In particular, MEC leverages powerful devices nearby and instead of sending information to distant cloud servers, the transmission occurs in closer range, which can effectively reduce communication delay. In this work, we have proposed a new evaluation metric for MEC which can more effectively leverage the trade-off between the amount of computation and the energy consumed thereby. A practical communication system for wearable devices is proposed in the last part, which combines all the techniques discussed above. The challenges for wearable communication are inherent in its diverse needs, as some devices may require low speed but high reliability (factory sensors), while others may need low delay (medical devices). We have addressed these challenges and validated our findings through simulations