Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing-NOMA Downlink Systems with Weak and Strong Subcarriers Division

To combine the orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) modulation with non-orthogonal multiple access (NOMA) technique, it is required to ensure the successful successive interference cancellation procedure. Because of the fast Fourier transform (FFT) and inverse FFT employed at the OFDM transceivers, the central user may have weak subcarriers and the cell-edge user may have strong subcarriers. In this paper, we propose that for the central or cell-edge user, signals over the weak (strong) subcarriers are jointly encoded and decoded. Our objective is to maximize the weighted sum average achievable rates at both the central and cell-edge users through power allocation optimization. To solve the optimization problem, we propose a constrained convex-concave procedure (CCCP) based locally optimal solution, a Lagrangian dual transformation based locally optimal solution, and a prime decomposition based near-optimal solution. The prime decomposition based algorithm, which solves the problem based on water-filling, has extremely low computational complexity. It is shown through simulation results that the proposed scheme outperforms the conventional OFDM-NOMA scheme. Furthermore, it is found that the results obtained by the CCCP based solution, Lagrangian dual transformation based solution, and prime decomposition based solution match one another.