Energy-Efficient Resource Allocation in Downlink GFDM-NOMA Networks

In this paper, the authors investigate the downlink radio resource allocation for wireless communications which consist of generalized frequency division multiplexing (GFDM) and non-orthogonal multiple access (NOMA). In our scheme, the whole frequency resource is divided into a lot of sub-carriers which are not always orthogonal and each subcarrier is allocated to multiple users according to NOMA principle. Energy efficiency (EE) is formulated under basic data rate requirements and the maximum transmitting power constraint of base station (BS). Due to the non-convex nature of the problem, we decompose it into two sub-problems: subcarrier allocation and power allocation. Subcarrier allocation is implemented in a greedy manner based on the predefined NOMA pairing principle and power allocation is transformed into a sequence of convex sub-problems by successive convex approximations. Numerical results demonstrate the correctness of our analysis and effectiveness of our algorithm. Additionally, GFDM can be easily integrated with cognitive radio to further enhance the performance of wireless communications.