Resource allocation in cache-enabled CRAN with non-orthogonal multiple access

Abstract

This paper studies the application of non-orthogonal multiple access (NOMA) to cache-enabled cloud radio access network (CRAN) with mixed multicast and unicast transmission. Users requesting the same content are grouped together and served with a cluster of remote radio heads (RRHs) using distributed beamforming. In addition, the user with better channel condition in each group is allowed to request an extra unicast content via the NOMA protocol. Each RRH has a local cache which enables it to acquire the requested contents either from the local cache or from the central processor via the fronthaul link. Taking the maximum fronthaul capacity into consideration, we investigate the subchannel (SC) allocation problem to both RRHs and multicast groups to improve the weighted network sum rate. The optimal solution requires exhaustive search, which become prohibitively complicated as the number of RRHs and groups increases. To tackle this problem effectively, we formulate this problem as a three-sided matching problem among SCs, RRHs and multicast groups, and propose a novel low-complexity matching algorithm. We prove mathematically that the proposed algorithm converges to a stable matching within limited number of iterations. Numerical results unveil that the proposed algorithm closely approaches the optimal solution and outperforms the conventional orthogonal multiple access (OMA)-based CRAN.