Power allocation in OFDM based NOMA systems: A DC programming approach

In this work, we have considered the downlink of an Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing based Non Orthogonal Multiple Access system where transmission to multiple number of users is performed on the same sub-band (time-frequency resource unit) using Superposition Coding (SC) technique. At the receiver side, the SC coded symbols are recovered with Successive Interference Cancellation (SIC). Assuming that complete channel state information is present at the base station, we propose (1) co-channel user set selection, (2) power distribution among the multiplexed users on each sub-band, and (3) power allocation across the sub-bands to maximize the weighted sum rate of the system. Since the problem is a non-convex combinatorial optimization problem, two step heuristic solution is employed. In the first step, for each of the sub-bands, a greedy user selection and iterative sub-optimal power allocation algorithm based on Difference of Convex (DC) programming is presented. In the second step, exploiting the DC structure of the modified problem, power allocation across sub-band is carried out through the same iterative power allocation algorithm. Simulation results are provided to assess and compare the performance of the proposed algorithms.