Non-orthogonal multiple access (NOMA) schemes have achieved great attention recently and been considered as a crucial component for 5G wireless networks since they can efficiently enhance the spectrum efficiency, support massive connections and potentially reduce access latency via grant free access. In this paper, we introduce the candidate NOMA solutions in 5G networks, comparing the principles, key features, application scenarios, transmitters and receivers, etc. In addition, a unified framework of these multiple access schemes are proposed to improve resource utilization, reduce the cost and support the flexible adaptation of multiple access schemes. Further, flexible multiple access schemes in 5G systems are discussed. They can support diverse deployment scenarios and traffic requirements in 5G. Challenges and future research directions are also highlighted to shed some lights for the standardization in 5G.

A large-scale antenna system (LSAS) with digital beamforming is expected to significantly increase energy efficiency (EE) and spectral efficiency (SE) in a wireless communication system. However, there are many challenging issues related to calibration, energy consumption, and cost in implementing a digital beamforming structure in an LSAS. In a practical LSAS deployment, hybrid digital-analog beamforming structures with active antennas can be used. In this paper, we investigate the optimal antenna configuration in an N × M beamforming structure, where N is the number of transceivers, M is the number of active antennas per transceiver, where analog beamforming is introduced for individual transceivers and digital beamforming is introduced across all N transceivers. We analyze the green point, which is the point of maximum EE on the EE-SE curve, and show that the log-scale EE scales linearly with SE along a slope of -lg2/N. We investigate the effect of M on EE for a given SE value in the case of fixed NM and independent N and M. In both cases, there is a unique optimal M that results in optimal EE. In the case of independent N and M, there is no optimal (N, M) combination for optimizing EE. The results of numerical simulations are provided, and these results support our analysis.