Resource allocation for energy efficient user association in user-centric ultra-dense networks integrating NOMA and beamforming

A coupling of wireless access via non-orthogonal multiple access and wireless backhaul via beamforming is a promising way for downlink user-centric ultra-dense networks (UDNs) to improve system performance. However, ultra-dense deployment of radio access points in macrocell and user-centric view of network design in UDNs raise important concerns about resource allocation and user association, among which notably is energy efficiency (EE) balance. To overcome this challenge, we develop a framework to investigate the resource allocation problem for energy efficient user association in such a scenario. The joint optimization framework aiming at the system EE maximization is formulated as a large-scale non-convex mixed-integer nonlinear programming problem, which is NP-hard to solve directly with lower complexity. Alternatively, taking advantages of sum-of-ratios decoupling and successive convex approximation methods, we transform the original problem into a series of convex optimization subproblems. Then we solve each subproblem through Lagrangian dual decomposition, and design an iterative algorithm in a distributed way that realizes the joint optimization of power allocation, sub-channel assignment, and user association simultaneously. Simulation results demonstrate the effectiveness and practicality of our proposed framework, which achieves the rapid convergence speed and ensures a beneficial improvement of system-wide EE. (C) 2020 Elsevier GmbH. All rights reserved.