The Application of Relay to Massive Non-Orthogonal Multiple Access

This paper considers the application of relay to enhance the performance of massive non-orthogonal multiple access (NOMA) systems and solve the challenge of channel state information acquisition in the case of a massive number of users. First, we design a general framework for a multiple-relay-aided massive NOMA system. Then, we analyze the performance of the multiple-relay-aided massive NOMA system, and derive a closed-form expression for a lower bound on the spectral efficiency. In particular, we reveal the impact of system parameters on the spectral efficiency via asymptotic analysis in three important scenarios, e.g., a large number of antennas at the base station (BS), a high transmit power at the BS or the relays, and a large number of relays. To further improve the spectral efficiency in the context of massive access, we propose two effective schemes to optimize the transmit power at the BS and relays, respectively. Finally, extensive simulation results validate the effectiveness of the proposed multiple-relay-aided massive NOMA scheme.