NOMA-Enabled Cellular Radio Access Networks Relying on Control- and User-Plane Separation

In a cellular radio access network relying on control- and user-plane separation (RAN-CUPS), control base stations (CBSs) make up the control plane (CP) taking charge of coverage, and traffic base stations (TBSs) in the user plane (UP) are responsible for transmitting high-speed data under the umbrella of CP. In order to increase the coverage probability of CP, non-orthogonal multiple access (NOMA) is introduced into CP while UP adopts orthogonal frequency division multiple access (OFDMA). Then, we develop a tractable analytical model for NOMA-enabled RAN-CUPS based on stochastic geometry. Simulation results show that compared with OFDMA, NOMA could improve coverage probability, spectral efficiency, and energy efficiency of CP, which can further improve the spectral efficiency of UP.