Advanced Resource Allocation Technique for a Fair Downlink Non-Orthogonal Multiple Access System

In this paper, a novel resource allocation technique is proposed for a power-domain non-orthogonal multiple access scheme using successive interference cancellation in a downlink cellular system. It aims at providing a flexible balancing between throughput and fairness maximization and incorporates unequal power repartition among allocated subbands using waterfilling. Its main strength is the ability to achieve a high level of fairness in every scheduling slot, therefore improving the quality of experience for all users. Fairness is achieved by the introduction of a new efficient scheduling metric within the allocation process. Extensive simulation results show that the proposed metric enhances both long-term and short-term fairness, and improves system capacity, when compared to the conventional proportional fairness scheduler.