Ultra-Dense Networks in 5G: Interference Management via Non-Orthogonal Multiple Access and Treating Interference as Noise

We propose a method for interference mitigation in an ultra-dense wireless network scenario in 5G, where a group of transmit points (TPs) intend to serve multiple user equipments (UEs) using the same wireless resource. The proposed UE scheduling subroutine may schedule a single UE or multiple UEs for each TP, where multiple UEs can be served via non-orthogonal multiple-access (NOMA). Afterwards, the link scheduling subroutine utilizes an extended form of the optimality conditions for treating interference as noise in single-user networks for the case where NOMA is also involved. This subroutine determines an activation/deactivation pattern of TPs while maintaining fairness among competing users and minimizing the level of interference among concurrent transmissions. We show that our proposed interference management scheme can improve over the benchmark schemes both in terms of sum-throughput and coverage, striking the right trade-off between these two performance metrics.