Yoshihisa Kishiyama

Non-Orthogonal Multiple Access (NOMA) for Cellular Future Radio Access

This paper presents a non-orthogonal multiple access (NOMA) concept for cellular future radio access (FRA) towards the 2020s information society. Different from the current LTE radio access scheme (until Release 11), NOMA superposes multiple users in the power domain although its basic signal waveform could be based on the orthogonal frequency division multiple access (OFDMA) or the discrete Fourier transform (DFT)-spread OFDM the same as LTE baseline. In our concept, NOMA adopts a successive interference cancellation (SIC) receiver as the baseline receiver scheme for robust multiple access, considering the expected evolution of device processing capabilities in the future. Based on system-level evaluations, we show that the downlink NOMA with SIC improves both the capacity and cell-edge user throughput performance irrespective of the availability of the frequency-selective channel quality indicator (CQI) on the base station side. Furthermore, we discuss possible extensions of NOMA by jointly applying multi-antenna/site technologies with a proposed NOMA/MIMO scheme using SIC and an interference rejection combining (IRC) receiver to achieve further capacity gains, e.g., a three-fold gain in the spectrum efficiency representing a challenging target for FRA.

Coordinated multipoint transmission/reception techniques for LTE-advanced [Coordinated and Distributed MIMO]

This article presents an elaborate coordination technique among multiple cell sites called coordinated multipoint transmission and reception in the Third Generation Partnership Project for LTE-Advanced. After addressing major radio access techniques in the LTE Release 8 specifications, system requirements and applied radio access techniques that satisfy the requirements for LTE-Advanced are described including CoMP transmission and reception. Then CoMP transmission and reception schemes and the related radio interface, which were agreed upon or are currently being discussed in the 3GPP, are presented. Finally, system-level simulation evaluations show that the CoMP transmission and reception schemes have a significant effect in terms of improving the cell edge user throughput based on LTE-Advanced simulation conditions.

Trends in small cell enhancements in LTE advanced

3GPP LTE, or Long Term Evolution, the fourth generation wireless access technology, is being rolled out by many operators worldwide. Since LTE Release 10, network densification using small cells has been an important evolution direction in 3GPP to provide the necessary means to accommodate the anticipated huge traffic growth, especially for hotspot areas. Recently, LTE Release 12 has been started with more focus on small cell enhancements. This article provides the design principles and introduces the ongoing discussions on small cell enhancements in LTE Release 12, and provides views from two active operators in this area, CMCC and NTT DOCOMO.

System-level performance evaluation of downlink non-orthogonal multiple access (NOMA)

As a promising downlink multiple access scheme for further LTE enhancement and future radio access (FRA), this paper investigates the system-level performance of non-orthogonal multiple access (NOMA) with a successive interference canceller (SIC) on the receiver side. The goal is to clarify the potential gains of NOMA over orthogonal multiple access (OMA) such as OFDMA, taking into account key link adaptation functionalities of the LTE radio interface such as adaptive modulation and coding (AMC), hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ), time/frequency-domain scheduling, and outer loop link adaptation (OLLA), in addition to NOMA specific functionalities such as dynamic multi-user power allocation. Based on computer simulations, we show under multiple configurations that the system-level performance achieved by NOMA is superior to that for OMA.

A novel architecture for LTE-B :C-plane/U-plane split and Phantom Cell concept

This paper introduces a novel approach in increasing the capacity of LTE cellular networks. The solution is based on massive deployment of small cells by leveraging high frequency reuse at high frequency bands in conjunction with a Macrocell. The presence, discovery and usage of the small cells are controlled dynamically by a Macrocell in a master-slave configuration hence they are called Phantom Cells. To realize this concept, a new method of managing the connections between mobile terminals and small cell nodes is introduced. It is achieved by splitting the Control and User (C/U) planes of the radio link. The combination of C/U-plane split and Phantom Cells can achieve high capacity enhancement using small cells at the same time taking into consideration mobility, scalability and flexibility requirements for massive deployment. The advantages of this approach as well as the implementation aspects are described in the paper. Simulations were also conducted to verify the concept and the results show some promising capacity enhancements. The rest of the paper describes the Phantom Cell concept as well as the challenges of deploying small cells in LTE networks.

Concept and practical considerations of non-orthogonal multiple access (NOMA) for future radio access

As a promising downlink multiple access scheme for future radio access (FRA), this paper discusses the concept and practical considerations of non-orthogonal multiple access (NOMA) with a successive interference canceller (SIC) at the receiver side. The goal is to clarify the benefits of NOMA over orthogonal multiple access (OMA) such as OFDMA adopted by Long-Term Evolution (LTE). Practical considerations of NOMA, such as multi-user power allocation, signalling overhead, SIC error propagation, performance in high mobility scenarios, and combination with multiple input multiple output (MIMO) are discussed. Using computer simulations, we provide system-level performance of NOMA taking into account practical aspects of the cellular system and some of the key parameters and functionalities of the LTE radio interface such as adaptive modulation and coding (AMC) and frequency-domain scheduling. We show under multiple configurations that the system-level performance achieved by NOMA is higher by more than 30% compared to OMA.

System-level performance of downlink NOMA for future LTE enhancements

This paper investigates the system-level performance of downlink non-orthogonal multiple access (NOMA) with power-domain user multiplexing at the transmitter side and successive interference canceller (SIC) on the receiver side. The goal is to clarify the performance gains of NOMA for future LTE (Long-Term Evolution) enhancements, taking into account design aspects related to the LTE radio interface such as, frequency-domain scheduling with adaptive modulation and coding (AMC), and NOMA specific functionalities such as error propagation of SIC receiver, multi-user pairing and transmit power allocation. In particular, a pre-defined user grouping and fixed per-group power allocation are proposed to reduce the overhead associated with power allocation signalling. Based on computer simulations, we show that for both wideband and subband scheduling and both low and high mobility scenarios, NOMA can still provide a hefty portion of its expected gains even with error propagation, and also when the proposed simplified user grouping and power allocation are used.

Future steps of LTE-A: evolution toward integration of local area and wide area systems

In the future steps of 3GPP LTE-Advanced, we will need to ensure the sustainability of 3GPP radio access technologies in order to respond to the anticipated challenging requirements of the future. To this end, this article presents our views on the evolution concept and candidate technologies for future steps of LTE-A taking into account the ever increasing importance of local area (small cells) and the need for further spectrum extension to higher frequency bands. In our evolution concept, we emphasize the integration of the local area with the wide area as a new form of cooperation between conventional macrocells in lower frequency bands and small cells deployed in higher frequency bands. Furthermore, we identify the potential key technologies for further spectrum efficiency enhancements for both the local area and the wide area, and for the efficient integration of the local and wide areas while assuming frequency separation between macrocells and small cells. In particular, multicell cooperation based on macrocell assistance of small cells (referred to as Phantom cell) is introduced, and the related benefits are discussed. Finally, in order to demonstrate the potential capacity gains of our evolution concept, system-level simulation results are provided for using outdoor small cells in higher/wider frequency bands.

Performance of non-orthogonal access with SIC in cellular downlink using proportional fair-based resource allocation

This paper investigates the system-level throughput of non-orthogonal access with a successive interference canceller (SIC) in the cellular downlink assuming proportional fair (PF)-based radio resource (bandwidth and transmission power) allocation. The purpose of this study is to examine the possibility of applying non-orthogonal access with a SIC to the systems beyond the 4G (thus IMT-Advanced) cellular system. Both the total and cell-edge average user throughput are important in a real system. PF-based scheduling is known to achieve a good tradeoff by maximizing the product of the average user throughput among users within a cell. In non-orthogonal access with a SIC, the scheduler allocates the same frequency to multiple users, which necessitates multiuser scheduling. To achieve a better tradeoff between the total and cell-edge average user throughput, we propose and compare three power allocation strategies among users, which are jointly implemented with multiuser scheduling. Extensive simulation results show that non-orthogonal access with a SIC with a moderate number of non-orthogonally multiplexed users significantly enhances the system-level throughput performance compared to orthogonal access, which is widely used in 3.9 and 4G mobile communication systems.

Non-Orthogonal Access with Random Beamforming and Intra-Beam SIC for Cellular MIMO Downlink

We investigate non-orthogonal access with a successive interference canceller (SIC) in the cellular multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) downlink for systems beyond LTE-Advanced. Taking into account the overhead for the downlink reference signaling for channel estimation at the user terminal in the case of non-orthogonal multiuser multiplexing and the applicability of the SIC receiver in the MIMO downlink, we propose intra-beam superposition coding of a multiuser signal at the transmitter and the spatial filtering of inter-beam interference followed by the intra-beam SIC at the user terminal receiver. The intra-beam SIC cancels out the inter-user interference within a beam. Furthermore, the transmitter beamforming (precoding) matrix is controlled based on open loop-type random beamforming, which is very efficient in terms of the amount of feedback information from the user terminal. Simulation results show that the proposed non-orthogonal access scheme with random beamforming and the intra-beam SIC simultaneously achieves better sum and cell-edge user throughput compared to orthogonal access, which is assumed in LTE-Advanced.