A Survey of Rate-optimal Power Domain NOMA with Enabling Technologies of Future Wireless Networks

The ambitious high data-rate applications in the envisioned future B5G networks require new solutions, including the advent of more advanced architectures than the ones already used in 5G networks, and the coalition of different communications schemes and technologies to enable these applications requirements. Among the candidate schemes for future wireless networks are NOMA schemes that allow serving more than one user in the same resource block by multiplexing users in other domains than frequency or time. In this way, NOMA schemes tend to offer several advantages over OMA schemes such as improved user fairness and spectral efficiency, higher cell-edge throughput, massive connectivity support, and low transmission latency. With these merits, NOMA-enabled transmission schemes are being increasingly looked at as promising multiple access schemes for future wireless networks. When the power domain is used to multiplex the users, it is referred to as PD-NOMA. In this paper, we survey the integration of PD-NOMA with the enabling communications schemes and technologies that are expected to meet the various requirements of B5G networks. In particular, this paper surveys the different rate optimization scenarios studied in the literature when PD-NOMA is combined with one or more of the candidate schemes and technologies for B5G networks including MISO, MIMO, mMIMO, advanced antenna architectures, mmWave and THz, CoMP, cooperative communications, cognitive radio, VLC, UAV and others. The considered system models, the optimization methods utilized to maximize the achievable rates, and the main lessons learnt on the optimization and the performance of these NOMA-enabled schemes and technologies are discussed in detail along with the future research directions for these combined schemes. Moreover, the role of machine learning in optimizing these NOMA-enabled technologies is addressed.