On the Comparison of Optimal NOMA and OMA in a Paradigm Shift of Emerging Technologies

Non-orthogonal multiple access (NOMA) is a better multiple access technique than orthogonal multiple access (OMA), precisely orthogonal frequency division multiple access (OFDMA) scheme, at the conceptual level for fifth-generation (5G) networks and beyond 5G (B5G) networks. We investigate the potentials of the schemes by comparing the proposed NOMA scheme with the traditional cooperative communication NOMA (CCNOMA) scheme, rather than the comparison between NOMA and OMA only. To probe the effectiveness of NOMA as a multiple access technique, we propose a novel NOMA scheme considering two adjacent BSs with a special design of the transceiver architecture. The proposed scheme provides a reasonable data rate to both near user (NU) and far user (FU) without compromising the quality of service (QoS) to anyone of them. The conclusive analyses on the optimization framework of multi-user sum rate, capacity, transmit power, spectral efficiency (SE), and energy efficiency (EE) trade-off for NOMA and OFDMA schemes have been established to a succession of derivations. Under the analytical optimization framework, we also prove quite a few properties for them. Simulation results confirm the theoretical findings and show that the two schemes can efficiently approach the optimal power allocation, minimization of power consumption, and optimal SE-EE trade-off, and the proposed NOMA scheme provides comparatively better data sum rates than the baseline OMA scheme.