Optimum Power-Subcarrier Allocation and Time-Sharing in Multicarrier NOMA Uplink

Currently used resource allocation methods for uplink multicarrier non-orthogonal multiple access (MC-NOMA) systems have multiple shortcomings. Current approaches either allocate the same power across all subcarriers to a user, or use heuristic-based near-far, strong channel-weak channel user grouping to assign the decoding order for successive interference cancellation (SIC). This paper proposes a novel optimal power-subcarrier allocation for uplink MC-NOMA. This new allocation achieves the optimal power-subcarrier allocation as well as the optimal SIC decoding order. Furthermore, the proposed method includes a time-sharing algorithm that dynamically alters the decoding orders of the participating users to achieve the required data rates, even in cases where any single decoding order fails to do so. Extensive experimental evaluations show that the new method achieves higher sum data rates and lower power consumption compared to current NOMA methods.