IoT Device Admission to NOMA-based Clusters in Next Generation Wireless Networks

Introduction: User data traffic—particularly video traffic and small IoT packets—has surged in recent years due to the proliferation of intelligent devices, sensors, and innovative applications like virtual reality and autonomous driving. These bandwidth-intensive applications place higher demands on user access and network capacity. Methods: To achieve faster data rates, increased throughput, and reduced latency, 6G networks may transition from orthogonal multiple access (OMA) to non-orthogonal multiple access (NOMA), which enhances spectral efficiency. Through a combination of analytical framework and intensive simulations, this paper examines the effects of admitting low-data- rate IoT devices into NOMA-based clusters of high-data-rate cellular users (CUs). Results: The simulation results indicate that admitting IoT devices with favorable locations can increase the total achievable rate of the cluster by about 30%, while maintaining each CU’s target rate. Discussion: Spatial-based recommendations for establishing an effective device admission strategy are provided. The results pave the way for device scheduling and association with the objective of maximizing the network utilization Conclusion: Admitting IoT devices into a NOMA cluster of cellular users is achievable without compromising the CUs target rates, a result that render NOMA techniques to play an important role in the 6G future deployments.