User scheduling and power allocation for downlink multi-cell multi-carrier NOMA systems

In Non-Orthogonal Multiple Access (NOMA), the best way to fully exploit the benefits of the system is the efficient resource allocation. For the NOMA power domain, the allocation of power and spectrum require solving the mixed-integer nonlinear programming NP-hard problem. In this paper, we investigate user scheduling and power allocation in Multi-Cell Multi-Carrier NOMA (MCMC-NOMA) networks. To achieve that, we consider Weighted Sum Rate Maximization (WSRM) and Weighted Sum Energy Efficiency Maximization (WSEEM) problems. First, we tackle the problem of user scheduling for fixed power using Fractional Programming (FP), the Lagrange dual method, and the decomposition method. Then, we consider Successive Pseudo-Convex Approximation (SPCA) to deal with the WSRM problem. Finally, for the WSEEM problem, SPCA is utilized to convert the problem into separable scalar problems, which can be parallelly solved. Thus, the Dinkelbach algorithm and constraints relaxation are used to characterize the closed-form solution for power allocation. Extensive simulations have been implemented to show the efficiency of the proposed framework and its superiority over other existing schemes.