2021 IEEE 26th International Workshop on Computer Aided Modeling and Design of Communication Links and Networks (CAMAD)

| 978-1-6654-1779-2/21/$31.00 ©2021 IEEE | DOI: 10.1109/CAMAD52502.2021.9617807

A Novel Fair Power Allocation for Sum-Rate

Maximization to NOMA-based Relaying System
Kai Yang, Kaiyu Qin, Xiao Yan, Qain Wang
School of Aeronautics and Astronautics, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China,
Chengdu, 611731, China, E-mail: kyqin@uestc.edu.cn

Abstract—This paper introduces an innovative fair power

allocation approach for half-duplex(HD) non-orthogonal multiple
access (NOMA)-based relaying system (NOMA-RS) with amplify
and forward strategy to achieve maximum sum-rate. In our
proposed framework, the power allocation in NOMA-RS is first
formulated as a constrained optimization problem with convex
objective function by utilizing the weighted minimum mean
squared error (WMMSE) method. Then, the iterative optimiza-
tion algorithm using Lagrange Multiplier is invoked to achieve
the optimal power allocation profile. A link-level performance
evaluation of the proposed new power allocation scheme for
NOMA-RS is conducted. The simulation results demonstrate that
the proposed novel power allocation technique can significantly
improve the sum-rate, and guarantee each mobile user’s data
rate, which is always greater than or equal to the data rate that
can be achieved using OMA in the same frequency band.
Index Terms—non-orthogonal multipleaccess (NOMA), relay-
ing system, power allocation, weighted minimum mean squared
error (WMMSE), sum-rate.
I. I NTRODUCTION
Non-orthogonal Multiple Access (NOMA) technology, with
which multiple paired users share the same radio resources
either in time, frequency or code, can provide superior perfor-
mance to the conventional orthogonal multiple-access (OMA)
technology [1], and has been widely regarded as a promising
solution to the new generation radio-access networks (5G
and beyond) [2]. In order to further extend coverage and
improve system throughput, cooperative NOMA has recently
emerged and attracted attention in academia, where the relays
with better channel conditions are adopted to enhance the
transmission performance for the users with poor channel con-
ditions. With the utilization of relays in NOMA-based relaying
system (NOMA-RS), the power allocation (PA) scheme, which
becomes extremely sophisticated, determines the achievable
performance of NOMA-RS. The energy-efficient PA tech-
niques for NOMA-RS with decode-and-forward (DF) strategy
and amplify-and-forward (AF) strategy were investigated in
[3] and [4], respectively, where NOMA-RS with AF scheme
is advantageous over DF in terms of low implementation
complexity. In addition, the optimal PA scheme was designed
to maximize the minimum achievable user rate in Half/Full
Duplex (HD/FD) NOMA-RS [5]. According to the existing
PA policies, it must be noticed that the PA technique for
NOMA-RS has never been considered from the perspective
of individual rates fairness, and cannot guarantee each mobile
user’s data rate, which is always greater than or equal to
the data rate which can be achieved using OMA. In this
Fig. 1. The dowmlink NOMA-RS model.
paper, we focus on a novel PA scheme for HD NOMA-
RS with AF strategy to achieve the sum-rate maximization
and fairness simultaneously. The weighted minimum mean
squared error (WMMSE) method is first employed to build
the convex objective function and transform the PA in NOMA-
RS into a constrained optimization problem. Then, the optimal
PA solution is obtained by using the iterative optimization
algorithm with Lagrange Multiplier. The numerical simulation
results verify the effectiveness and superiority of the proposed
algorithm.
Notations: Z denotes a matrix and z denotes a vector. The
superscript (·)∗ and (·)H signify the real part of a com-
plex number and conjugate-transpose operation, respectively.
C M ×N represents the space of M × N complex-valued ma-
trices. Finally, E [z] and V [z] stand for the expectation and
variance of a random variable z, respectively.
II. S YSTEM M ODEL AND P ROBLEM F ORMULATION
Considering a downlink HD NOMA-RS network with AF
strategy depicted in Fig. 1, the information-bearing signals
are broadcasted from a base station S with NS antennas to
M × N single-antenna users, which are randomly grouped
into M clusters with N users per cluster and denoted by
Um,n , m ∈ {1, . . . , M }, n ∈ {1, . . . , N }, with the assistance
of a relay station R with NR (NS ≥ NR ≥ 1) antennas.
Assume that the direct links between S and the users are
unavailable due to the physical obstacles. The transmission
between S and the given user Um,n must be relayed by R,
and the distances between S and R, S and Um,n and R and
Um,n are denoted by dSR , dSUm,n and dRUm,n , respectively.
The channel coefficient matrices of the links S ↔ R and
R ↔ Um,n are defined by H ∈ C NS ×NR and gm,n ∈ C NR ×1 ,
where their entries are all random variables following the

978-1-6654-1779-2/21/$31.00 ©2021 IEEE

Authorized licensed use limited to: MULTIMEDIA UNIVERSITY. Downloaded on December 01,2023 at 20:04:10 UTC from IEEE Xplore. Restrictions apply.
circular symmetric complex Gaussian (CSCG) q distribution
q Thus, the achievable data rate at Um,n can be calculated by
with zero mean and whose variances are dSR , d−α−α
SUm,n 1
q RNOMA
m,n = log2 (1 + γm,n ) (6)
and d−α , respectively, where α stands for the path loss 2
RUm,n
exponent. Without loss of generality, assume that the channel where the constant 1/2 is necessary, since the entire transmis-
gains for all the links between R and Um,n in mth cluster sion period is divided into two phases.
2 2 2
follow |gm,1 | ≥ |gm,2 | ≥ · · · ≥ |gm,N | . B. OMA-RS
A. NOMA-RS A benchmarking scheme based on conventional HD OMA-
During the first phase, S sends the superposition signal to based relaying system (OMA-RS) with AF strategy is de-
R based on the NOMA principle, and the received signal yR scribed as follows. The degrees of freedom (time or frequency)
at R can be expressed by are equally split among the M × N users. Accordingly, the
corresponding achievable data rate at Um,n is given by
M X
N
X √  
yR = H( wm pm,n sm,n ) + vR , (1) 1 P |h w |
2
m,n m
m=1 n=1 ROMA
m,n = log2 1 + 
2
  . (7)
2M N σ 2 gH + 1/β 2
where pm,n is the transmitted power for Um,n with restricted m,n

to the total transmitted power PS at S; wm and sm,n denote C. Problem Formulation

the unit precoding vector for the mth cluster and the trans-
2 It must be noticed that the existing PA techniques for
mitted signal for Um,n with E[|sm,n | ] = 1, respectively;
NOMA-RS cannot ensure that each user’s data rate in NOMA-
vR ∈ CNR ×1 is the additive noise at R, and its entries are
RS is never less than the data rate which can be achieved by
modeled as the random variables which follow the CSCG
2 using OMA-RS while pursuing higher sum-rate [3]–[5]. In this
distribution with zero mean and variance σR . Then, S remains
work, the PA is modeled as a constrained optimization problem
silent and R broadcasts the received signal to the users with
q to maximize sum-rate under the condition of fairness, and can
a gain β = PR /E[HHH PS + vR vR H ] during the second
be formulated as
phase, where PR indicates the total transmitted power at R. N
M X
Therefore, the received signal at Um,n can be written as
X
(P1) : max RNOMA
m,n (8a)
{p}
N
M X m=1 n=1
X √ H M X N
ym,n = βhm,n wi pi,j si,j + βgm,n vR + vm,n , (2) X
i=1 j=1 s.t. pm,n ≤ P, (8b)
m=1 n=1
where hm,n = gm,n H
HH represents the equivalent channel pm,n > 0, ∀m, n, (8c)
matrix of S ↔ Um,n ; vm,n denotes the CSCG random variable
with zero mean and variance σm,n2
at given Um,n . In order to RNOMA
m,n ≥ ROMA
m,n , ∀m, n, (8d)
l
remove Um,n s’ inter-cluster interference, the precoding vector γm,n ≥ γm,n , ∀m, n, ∀l > n, (8e)
2
can be designed as |wm | = 1 and hm,n wi = 0 for any
where p = {pm,n }, m ∈ {1, . . . , M }, n ∈ {1, . . . , N }.
i 6= m. Thus, Eq. (2) can be simplified as
Furthermore, Eq.(8b) indicates that the summation of all
N users’ transmitted power must be less than or equal to the
X √ H
ym,n = βhm,n wm pm,j sm,j + βgm,n vR + vm,n . (3) total transmitted power at S; Eq.(8c) means that each user’s
j=1 transmitted power has to be positive; Eq.(8d) enables that the
Under the principle of NOMA, Um,n first acquire and remove individual user data rate in NOMA-RS outperforms the corre-
all higher-priority users’ signals sm,l , l ∈ {n + 1, . . . , N }, sponding user data rate in OMA-RS, and Eq.(8e) is imposed
and reconstruct the desired signal sm,n using successive inter- to guarantee the fundamental condition for the implementation
ference cancellation (SIC). For mathematical tractability, one of SIC [4]. It must be pointed out that Eq.(8b) and Eq.(8c)
2 2
can set PS = PR = P and σR = σm,n = σ 2 . Thus, the are linear inequality constraints, while the object functions
instantaneous signal-to-interference plus noise ratio (SINR) Eq.(8a), Eq.(8d) and Eq.(8e) are all non-convex. Therefore, the
for decoding sm,l at Um,n can be given as PA in NOMA-RS can be considered as a non-convex nonlinear
2 fractional optimization problem [6].
l pm,l |hm,n wm,n |
γm,n = l−1   (4) III. T HE PROPOSED SOLUTION
P 2 2
pm,j |hm,n wm | + σ 2 gm,n
H + 1/β 2 A. Problem Transformation
j=1
For given Um,n , the mean square error of the desired signal
and the SINR for decoding sm,n at Um,n is
sm,n is defined as
2
pm,n |hm,n wm,n | n
2
o
γm,n = n−1   (5) em,n =E |sm,n − um,n ȳm,n |
P 2 2 (9)
pm,j |hm,n wm | + σ 2 gm,n
H + 1/β 2 √ 2 2
j=1 = 1 − um,n β pm,n hm,n wm + |um,n | ηm,n ,

Authorized licensed use limited to: MULTIMEDIA UNIVERSITY. Downloaded on December 01,2023 at 20:04:10 UTC from IEEE Xplore. Restrictions apply.
where Note that Eq.(8d) can be transformed into a linear constraint
√ H
by substituting Eq.(6) into Eq.(8d), and rewritten as
ȳm,n = pm,n βhm,n wm sm,n + βgm,n vR + vm,n , (10)
n−1
X 2 2
n−1 pm,j δm,n |hm,n wm | − pm,n |hm,n wm | ≤ −θm,n δm,n ,
X 2 H 2 2 2
ηm,n = pm,j |βhm,n wm | + βgm,n σ +σ , (11) j=1
j=1 (18)
2ROMA
δm,n = 2 m,n −1 (19)
um,n and ȳm,n denote the corresponding channel equalization  
2
efficient and the received signal at Um,n after SIC, respec- H
θm,n = σ 2 gm,n + 1/β 2 (20)
tively.
Therefore, by introducing a set of auxiliary variables φ =
Proposition 1: A set of user weight factors can be defined
{φm,n }, m ∈ {1, . . . , M }, n ∈ {1, . . . , N }, the non-convex
as x = {xm,n |xm,n > 0, m ∈ {1, . . . , M }, n ∈ {1, . . . , N }},
optimization problem (P1) can be equivalently expressed by
and the objective function
M X
X N
M X
N
X (P2) : min xm,n em,n − lnxm,n (21a)
min xm,n em,n − lnxm,n , (12) {p,u,x,φ}
m=1 n=1
{p,u,x}
m=1 n=1
s.t. (8b)&(8c)&(18)
is equivalent to the objective function specified in Eq.(8a), γm,n − φm,n ≤ 0, ∀m, n, (21b)
in the sense that the global optimal solutions to these two l
objective functions are the same. φm,n − γm,n ≤ 0, ∀m, n, ∀l > n. (21c)
Proof 1: By fixing p and x, Eq.(12) can be first rewritten The optimization problem (P2) is convex if u, x and φ are
as given.
M X
N
X B. Iterative Algorithm
min xm,n em,n . (13)
{u} In order to obtain the optimal power allocation coefficients,
m=1 n=1
the iterative optimization algorithm is employed to solve
The optimal equalization coefficient uom,n can be calculated the problem (P2). At the k th iteration, the optimal channel
by solving Eq.(13) as equalization efficients uo [k] = {uom,n [k]} and the optimal user
PM P N weight factors xo [k] = {xom,n [k]} can be updated according to
∂ xm,n em,n Eq.(14) and Eq.(16), respectively. The auxiliary variable φ[k]
m=1 n=1
=0 can be obtained by setting φm,n [k] to δm,n , m ∈ {1, . . . , M },
∂um,n
√
∗  −1 ∈ {1, . . . , N }. Then, one can build a Lagrange function
n
o 2 expressed by
⇒ um,n = pm,n βhm,n wm pm,n |βhm,n wm | + ηm,n .
(14) M X
X N
By substituting Eq.(14) into Eq.(9), one can further express L(p, λ, ν, µ, κ) = xom,n [k]em,n [k] − lnxom,n [k]
Eq.(9) as m=1 n=1
!
M X N M X N
eom,n = (1 + γm,n )−1 . (15) X X
+λ pm,n [k] − P + νm,n ∆m,n [k]
Then, the variable sets p and u in Eq.(12) is fixed, and Eq.(12) m=1 n=1 m=1 n=1
is degraded to x. The optimal user weight factor xom,n can be XM X N XM X N XN

calculated by + µm,n Πm,n [k] + κm,n,l Ωm,n,l [k],

 M N  m=1 n=1 m=1 n=1 l=n+1
P P (22)
∂ xm,n em,n − lnxm,n n−1
X
m=1 n=1 2
= 0, (16) ∆m,n [k] = pm,j [k]δm,n |hm,n wm |
∂xm,n j=1 (23)
⇒ xom,n = (eom,n )−1 . 2
− pm,n [k] |hm,n wm | + δm,n θm,n ,
By replacing Eq.(15) and Eq.(16) into Eq.(12), Eq.(12) can be 2
Πm,n [k] =pm,n [k] |hm,n wm |
equivalently expressed by  
n−1
X
M N M N 2
XX 2 XX − φm,n [k]  pm,j [k] |hm,n wm | + θm,n  ,
max ln(1 + γm,n ) = max RNOMA
m,n , j=1
{p}
m=1 n=1
log2 e {p} m=1 n=1
(17)  (24)
l−1
X 2
where e denotes natural constant. Considering Eq.(6) and Ωm,n,l [k] =φm,n [k]  pm,j [k] |hm,n wm | + θm,n 
Eq.(8a), it safely draws the conclusion that Eq.(17) and Eq.(8a) j=1

have identical global optimal power solution p. The proof is 2

− pm,l [k] |hm,n wm | ;
end. (25)

Authorized licensed use limited to: MULTIMEDIA UNIVERSITY. Downloaded on December 01,2023 at 20:04:10 UTC from IEEE Xplore. Restrictions apply.
where λ, ν, µ and κ denote the Lagrange multipliers as- Existing-OMA,d12=0.1
sociated with the constraints defined in Eq.(8b), Eq.(18), 10 Existing-NOMA,d =0.1
12

Achievable sum-rate [bits/s/Hz]

Eq.(21b) and Eq.(21c), respectively, and λ ≥ 0, νm,n ≥ 0, Proposed method,d12=0.1
Existing-OMA,d =0.2
µm,n ≥ 0, κm,n,l ≥ 0, m ∈ {1, . . . , M }, n ∈ {1, . . . , N }, 8 12
Existing-NOMA,d 12=0.2
l ∈ {n + 1, . . . , N }. The optimal power allocation coefficients
Proposed method,d12=0.2
can be calculated according to the standard Karush-Kuhn- Existing-OMA,d12=0.3
Tucker (KKT) conditions [6]. The detailed procedures of the 6
Existing-NOMA,d 12=0.4
proposed iterative optimization algorithm can be depicted by Proposed method,d =0.3
12
Algorithm 1. 4

Algorithm 1 Iterative optimal algorithm.

1: Initial the maximum number of iterations Kmax and the
2
iteration counter k = 0;
2: Initial P, φ[k], p[k]. 0
3: repeat -10 -5 0 5 10 15 20
4: Update uo [k+1], xo [k+1] by solving Eq.(14), Eq.(16); SNR(dB)
5: Update p[k + 1] according to the standard KKT condi-
Fig. 2. The achievable sum-rates versus SNR resulting from the proposed
tiobs. PA method, the conventional fixed-power NOMA method and OMA method
6: until k > Kmax with different user distances when dSR = 0.3.
7: Output the optimal power allocation coefficient po .

5 d12=0.1

Achievable sum-rate [bits/s/Hz]

IV. S IMULATION R ESULTS d12=0.2
d12=0.3
In this section, the performance of the proposed PA tech-
nique for NOMA-RS is validated via Monte Carlo simulations 4
in terms of the achievable sum-rates versus signal-to-noise
ratio (SNR) and the distance between S and R. Our method Proposed method

is also compared with the conventional fixed-power NOMA 3 Existing-NOMA

method [7] and OMA method [1]. The parameters mentioned
above are setting as follows, M = 2, N = 2, α = 5,
NS = NR = 5, σ 2 = 1, Tmax = 12, dSUm,2 = 1. In each 2
cluster, dRUm,2 = dSUm,2 − dSR , 0 < dRUm,1 < dRUm,2 , Existing-OMA

∀m, n. Here, the four users employed in the simulation are

divided into two clusters, and each contains two users with
the same distance d12 . In fixed-power NOMA, the power
allocation ratio between Um,1 and Um,2 in each cluster is set
as 1:4.
The achievable sum-rates versus SNR resulting from the
proposed PA method, the conventional fixed-power NOMA
method and OMA method with different user distances when
dSR = 0.3 are depicted in Fig. 2. From Fig. 2, it is obvious that
the achievable sum-rates for all the users resulting from the
proposed PA method (denoted by “Proposed method” in the
figure) and the conventional fixed-power NOMA method (de-
noted by “Existing-NOMA” in the figure) are always greater
than the achievable sum-rate generated by the existing OMA
method (denoted by “Existing-OMA” in the figure) no matter
what the SNR and d12 are set. For given d12 , the proposed PA
method can provide about 0.5 bits/s/Hz gain in the achievable
sum-rates under lower SNR conditions compared with the
existing fixed-power NOMA method, due to the fact that the
extra power is assigned to the near users by our proposed
method to ensure the fairness for all users. However, it should
be noticed that the achievable sum-rates of the proposed
PA method and the conventional fixed-power NOMA method
approach the same value asymptotically at high SNRs.
1
0.3 0.4 0.5 0.6 0.7
dSR
Fig. 3. The achievable sum-rates versus dSR resulting from the proposed
PA method, the conventional fixed-power NOMA method and OMA method
with different user distances when SNR = 2dB.
Then, for given SNR = 2dB, the achievable sum-rates of
the three techniques versus the distance between base station
and relay versus are illustrated in Fig. 3. According to Fig. 3,
the proposed PA method always outperforms the conventional
fixed-power NOMA method and OMA method when dSR
ranges from 0.3 to 0.7. It should be pointed out that the optimal
distances between base station and relay which can lead to
maximum sum-rates are distinct for different d12 by using our
proposed algorithm.
V. C ONCLUSION
In this paper, a fair power allocation algorithm for NOMA-
RS with AF strategy is designed to maximize the sum-rate.
The WMMSE method is first employed to convert PA into
a constrained optimization problem with convex objective

Authorized licensed use limited to: MULTIMEDIA UNIVERSITY. Downloaded on December 01,2023 at 20:04:10 UTC from IEEE Xplore. Restrictions apply.
function. Then, the iterative optimal algorithm is utilized
to calculate the optimal power allocation coefficients. The
proposed PA method can lead to a promising system sum-rate
without losing fairness for all the users.
R EFERENCES
[1] Z. Ding, F. Adachi, and H. V. Poor. The Application of MIMO
to Non-Orthogonal Multiple Access. IEEE Transactions on Wireless
Communications, 15(1):537–552, Jan 2016.
[2] Z. Ding, Y. Liu, J. Choi, Q. Sun, M. Elkashlan, C. I, and H. V.
Poor. Application of Non-Orthogonal Multiple Access in LTE and 5G
Networks. IEEE Communications Magazine, 55(2):185–191, February
2017.
[3] Q. Liu, T. Lv, and Z. Lin. Energy-Efficient Transmission Design in
Cooperative Relaying Systems Using NOMA. IEEE Communications
Letters, 22(3):594–597, March 2018.
Authorized licensed use limited to: MULTIMEDIA UNIVERSITY. Downloaded on December 01,2023 at 20:04:10 UTC from IEEE Xplore. Restrictions apply.
[4] A. Gupta, S. Biswas, K. Singh, T. Ratnarajah, and M. Sellathurai. An
Energy-Efficient Approach Towards Power Allocation in Non-Orthogonal
Multiple Access Full-Duplex AF Relay Systems. In 2018 IEEE 19th
International Workshop on Signal Processing Advances in Wireless Com-
munications (SPAWC), pages 1–5, June 2018.
[5] Z. Shen, G. Liu, Z. Ding, M. Xiao, Z. Ma, and F. R. Yu. Optimal
Power Allocations for 5G Non-Orthogonal Multiple Access with Half/Full
Duplex Relaying. In ICC 2019 - 2019 IEEE International Conference on
Communications (ICC), pages 1–7, May 2019.
[6] S. Boyd and L. Vandenberghe. Convex optimization. Cambridge
University Press, 2004.
[7] J. A. Oviedo and H. R. Sadjadpour. A Fair Power Allocation Approach
to NOMA in Multiuser SISO Systems. IEEE Transactions on Vehicular
Technology, 66(9):7974–7985, Sep. 2017.