An Overview of Non-Orthogonal Multiple Access

doi:10.3969/j.issn.1673-5188.2017.S1.003

Abstract

Abstract:

In recent years, non-orthogonal multiple access (NOMA) has attracted a lot of attention as a novel and promising power-domain user multiplexing scheme for Long-Term Evolution (LTE) enhancement and 5G. NOMA is able to contribute to the improvement of the tradeoff between system capacity and user fairness (i.e., cell-edge user experience). This improvement becomes in particular emphasized in a cellular system where the channel conditions vary significantly among users due to the near-far effect. In this article, we provide an overview of the concept, design and performance of NOMA. In addition, we review the potential benefits and issues of NOMA over orthogonal multiple access (OMA) such as orthogonal frequency division multiple access (OFDMA) adopted by LTE, and the status of 3GPP standardization related to NOMA.

Key words: multiple access, non-orthogonal multiple access (NOMA), power-domain, multi-user detection, MUST

Anass Benjebbour. An Overview of Non-Orthogonal Multiple Access[J]. ZTE Communications, 2017, 15(S1): 21-30.

Figures/Tables 10

Figure 1. Illustration of downlink NOMA with SIC.

Figure 2. Simple comparison example between NOMA and OFDMA for downlink.

Figure 3. Uplink NOMA with SIC applied at BS receiver.

Figure 4. Simple comparison example of NOMA and SC-FDMA for uplink.

Figure 5. User multiplexing in power and frequency domains using NOMA.

Figure 6. NOMA extension from 1x2 SIMO to 2x2 MIMO.

Figure 7. Downlink NOMA combined with 2x2 MIMO using random beamforming and applying IRC-SIC receivers.

Figure 8. Downlink NOMA with SIC combined with SU-MIMO (2x2 MIMO, 2-UE).

Figure 9. Uplink NOMA combined with 2x2 MIMO.

Figure 10. NOMA test-bed.

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