Optimal user selection and power allocation for revenue maximization in non-orthogonal multiple access systems

A novel algorithm for joint user selection and optimal power allocation for Stackelberg game-based revenue maximization in a downlink non-orthogonal multiple access (NOMA) network is proposed in this study. The condition for the existence of optimal solution is derived by assuming perfect channel state information (CSI) at the transmitter. The Lagrange multiplier method is used to convert the revenue maximization problem into a set of quadratic equations that are reduced to a regular chain of expressions. The optimal solution is obtained via a univariate iterative procedure. A simple algorithm for joint optimal user selection and power calculation is presented and exhibits extremely low complexity. Furthermore, an outage analysis is presented to evaluate the performance degradation when perfect CSI is not available. The simulation results indicate that at 5-dB signal-to-noise ratio (SNR), revenue of the base station improves by at least 15.2% for the proposed algorithm when compared to suboptimal schemes. Other performance metrics of NOMA, such as individual user-rates, fairness index, and outage probability, approach near-optimal values at moderate to high SNRs.