A State-of-the-Art Survey on Reconfigurable Intelligent Surface-Assisted Non-Orthogonal Multiple Access Networks

Reconfigurable intelligent surfaces (RISs) and nonorthogonal multiple access (NOMA) have been recognized as key enabling techniques for the envisioned sixth generation (6G) of mobile communication networks. The key feature of RISs is to intelligently reconfigure the wireless propagation environment, which was once considered to be fixed and untunable. The key idea of NOMA is to utilize users’ dynamic channel conditions to improve spectral efficiency and user fairness. Naturally, the two communication techniques are complementary to each other and can be integrated to cope with the challenging requirements envisioned for 6G mobile networks. This survey provides a comprehensive overview of the recent progress on the synergistic integration of RISs and NOMA. In particular, the basics of both techniques are introduced first, and then, the fundamentals of RIS-NOMA are discussed for two communication scenarios with different transceiver capabilities. Resource allocation is of paramount importance for the success of RIS-assisted NOMA networks, and various approaches, including artificial intelligence (AI)-empowered designs, are introduced. Security provisioning in RIS-NOMA networks is also discussed as wireless networks are prone to security attacks due to the nature of the shared wireless medium. Finally, the survey is concluded with detailed discussions of the challenges arising in the practical implementation of RIS-NOMA, future research directions, and emerging applications.