Resource Management in the Multibeam NOMA-based Satellite Downlink

A beam-free approach to channel allocation in a multi-beam four-color satellite coverage area is taken. Non-Orthogonal Multiple Access (NOMA) and Orthogonal Multiple Access (OMA) are compared as methods to serve users non-necessarily located on the reference beam. A proportional fairness policy is employed for the user scheduling. The naturally occurring SNR imbalances in the user terminal population are exploited in such a way that NOMA outperforms OMA, partly due to the blurring of the boundaries of the satellite beams, in such a way that a non-conventional approach to user pairing can reap more benefits from a system perspective.