Non-Orthogonal Multiple Access in Distributed Antenna Systems for Max-Min Fairness and Max-Sum-Rate

The distributed antenna systems (DAS) and non-orthogonal multiple access (NOMA) are the key technologies to boost the data rate of the cellular system in terms of small cell and multiple access, respectively. To meet the high data rate requirements for 5G and beyond, we suggest a framework of using NOMA in DAS. In the proposed scheme, RRUs which are geographically distributed in the cell serve the cell-edge users within their own coverage. Meanwhile, the macro BS, which covers the entire cell region with relatively high transmit power, supports both the cell-center and the cell-edge users with identical resources by using NOMA. Compared to the conventional DAS where the macro BS and the RRU serve the cell-center and the cell-edge users, respectively, the proposed framework also boosts the data rate of the cell-center user by improving the reliability of successive interference cancellation (SIC) at the cell-center user. In the proposed framework, this paper also proposes the optimal power allocation rules maximizing the user fairness in two different cases of instantaneous channel gain information (CGI) and channel distribution information (CDI) known at the transmitter. Also, the power allocation methods maximizing the sum-rate with a minimum rate constraint and the weighted sum-rate are presented in the case of CGI known at the transmitter. Simulation results show that the proposed framework of using NOMA in DAS can boost data rates more in a variety of system environments compared to the conventional NOMA or DAS.