Joint Throughput-Power Optimization of Fog-RAN Using Rate-Splitting Multiple Access and Reinforcement-Learning Based User Clustering

Rate-splitting multiple access (RSMA) and reinforcement-learning (RL) based user clustering are leveraged to manage interference of a downlink fog radio access network. In particular, clustering of the user devices (UDs) is considered. The UDs of a given cluster can receive data from a certain fog access point (F-AP) over the same radio resource blocks (RRBs) simultaneously. To this end, RSMA enabled data transmission is exploited at each UD cluster. To manage intra-cluster and inter-cluster interference of the network, we focus on the resource allocation to maximize the sum-rate and to minimize total transmission power of the F-APs in each transmission slot. Towards this goal, we optimize jointly the F-APs’ transmit power allocation for RSMA enabled data transmission, clustering of UDs, and assignment of RRBs among the F-APs. The proposed optimization problem is NP-hard, and as a result, a global optimal solution is computationally intractable even with the centralized implementation. To obtain an efficient solution without having the global network information, the proposed optimization problem is decomposed into two sub-problems, namely, UD clustering and resource allocation among the F-APs. Specifically, the UD clusters are obtained by applying a multi-agent RL technique, and the resource allocation among the F-APs is obtained by applying the fractional programming, Lagrangian duality, and alternating optimization techniques. A distributed user clustering-power allocation-RRB assignment (UC-PA-RA) algorithm is proposed, and its convergence to the near-optimal solution is proved. Through extensive simulations, the superiority of the proposed UC-PA-RA algorithm over the contemporary multiple access schemes, UD clustering technique, and RL method is verified.