Coordinated beamforming and power allocation for multicell NOMA systems

In this work, coordinated beamforming and power allocation schemes are proposed for multicell downlink non-orthogonal multiple access (NOMA) systems. Beamforming is adopted at the base-station to mitigate both intercell and intracell interference whereas power-domain multiplexing between a pair of users is considered in each spatial dimension. Given the beamforming vectors, intra-pair power allocation is first determined by maximizing the weighted sum rate under worst-case interference. Then, two coordinated beamforming schemes that take into consideration the effect of power-domain multiplexing are proposed, namely, the coordinated scheduling with pair-wise zero-forcing (CSPZF) and the maximum pair-wise signal-to-leakage-plus-noise ratio (PSLNR) beamforming schemes. CSPZF beamforming utilizes the available spatial degrees of freedom at each base-station to separate signals intended for intracell user pairs as well as to eliminate strong out-of-cell interference. PSLNR beamforming, on the other hand, enhances the signal intended for each user pair while suppressing its leakage towards other users (including those in other cells). CSPZF is shown to outperform PSLNR beamforming in the high SNR regime where the performance is interference-limited and, vice versa.