NOMA-Relevant Clustering and Resource Allocation for Proportional Fair Uplink Communications

This letter focuses on clustering and resource block (RB) allocation in multi-carrier uplink networks using power-domain non orthogonal multiple access (PD-NOMA). The optimization objective is time-based proportional fairness. PD-NOMA is applied per frame and RB only if the achieved individual data rates are larger with PD-NOMA than with time division multiple access. The clustering algorithm recursively uses maximum weight matching to build clusters per RB. Given the clusters, RB allocation is then optimal. The proposed algorithm provides a good trade-off between reduced overall network latency and rate improvement compared to two reference algorithms.