Coalition Formation Games for Improved Cell-Edge User Service in Downlink NOMA and MU-MIMO Small Cell Systems

In today’s wireless communication systems, the exponentially growing needs of mobile users require the combination of new and existing techniques to meet the demands for reliable and high-quality service provision. This may not always be possible, as the resources in wireless telecommunication systems are limited and a significant number of users, usually located at the cell edges, can suffer from severe interference. For this purpose, a new Joint Transmission Coordinated Multipoint (JT-CoMP) scheme, in which the transmission points’ clustering is based on a coalition formation game, is deployed alongside with Non-Orthogonal Multiple Access (NOMA) in a Cloud Radio Access Network (C-RAN) consisting of small cells. To further enhance the network’s performance, Multiuser Multiple-Input Multiple-Output (MU-MIMO) with Zero-Forcing (ZF) beamforming is applied. The proposed scheme’s performance, in terms of user throughput, is then compared to that of a scheme where JT-CoMP with static clustering is selected, a JT-CoMP scheme with clustering based on a greedy algorithm and a scenario where JT-CoMP is not deployed. Simulation results confirm that the proposed scheme reliably improves the throughput of users with poor wireless channels while guaranteeing that the performance of the rest is not severely undermined.