Non-Orthogonal Multiple Access Vehicular Small Cell Networks: Architecture and Solution

Recently, the concept of 5G vehicular smallcell networking (V-SCN) has been proposed to meet the growing demand of mobile data services in vehicular communications. However, it is a great challenge to explore spectrum and energy efficiency due to the fast vehicle mobility and varying communication environment. In this article, we focus on critical issues, such as interference management and handover, when employing 5G V-SCNs. In order to solve these issues, the network architecture embedded with NOMA is deigned. Furthermore, we propose a hierarchical power control solution to perform the joint optimization of cell association and power control to improve the spectrum and energy efficiency in NOMA-enabled 5G V-SCNs. Numerical comparison results provide some guidelines for developing NOMA-enabled 5G V-SCNs in an economical and highly energy-efficient manner.