Game Theoretical Framework for Joint Channel Selection and Power Control in Hybrid NOMA

Non-Orthogonal Multiple Access (NOMA) is an interesting candidate to tackle the massive access challenges in Beyond 5G (B5G) systems. However, arranging Machine Type Devices (MTDs) into NOMA clusters and allocating resources to these clusters is a non-trivial task. In this paper, we consider a Hybrid NOMA system where every NOMA cluster is allocated an orthogonal sub-carrier and propose a game theoretical framework based on a bi-level game in order to achieve joint channel selection and power allocation for MTDs. Indeed, the proposed approach is composed of a non-cooperative power control game underlying a cooperative Hedonic game that enables MTDs to self-organize into coalitions. Furthermore, we propose two low-complexity algorithms that enable us to obtain a Nash-Stable partition where MTDs decide autonomously the appropriate Resource Block (RB) and the transmit power to use in order to deliver their packets. Our simulation results show that the proposed bi-level game allows the devices to achieve a high successful packet transmission rate while consuming less energy.