A NOMA Power Allocation Strategy Based

on Genetic Algorithm

Lu Yin1,2(&), Wang Chenggong1, Mao Kai3, Bao Kuanxin1,

and Bian Haowei4
1
Jiangsu Key Laboratory of Wireless Communications, Nanjing University of
Posts and Telecommunications, Nanjing 210003, China
luyin@njupt.edu.cn
2
Engineering Research Center of Health Service System Based on Ubiquitous
Wireless Networks, Nanjing University of Posts and Telecommunications,
Ministry of Education, Nanjing, China
3
School of Computer Science, Nanjing University of Posts and
Telecommunications, Nanjing 210023, China
4
School of Computer and Software, Nanjing University of Information Science
and Technology, Nanjing 210044, China

Abstract. The NOMA technology uses the power domain non-orthogonal

multiplexing method to enable multiple users to occupy the entire frequency
band simultaneously to transmit signals. In order to maximize the total trans-
mission rate of the system, an effective method is to use the genetic algorithm
for NOMA power allocation. In this paper, the NOMA downlink system model
is constructed, and the objective function and constraints are analyzed.
A NOMA power allocation strategy based on genetic algorithm is proposed. The
algorithm distributes user power based on the criterion of maximizing total
transmission rate, therefore the algorithm has random search capabilities and
relatively low search complexity. The simulation results show that when the
system transmits power or multiplexed users is fixed the proposed algorithm
outperforms the fixed power allocation algorithm in the total transmission rate.
The total system transmission rate of the genetic algorithm is similar to the full
space search algorithm. As the number of multiplexed users increases, the
computational complexity of genetic algorithms is much lower than that of full-
space search algorithms.

Keywords: Non-orthogonal multiple access
Total system transmission rate

Genetic algorithm
Computational complexity

1 Introduction

As a new access method, NOMA technology has become one of the 5G core candidate
technologies [1]. NOMA technology can be divided into power domain multiplexing
NOMA, code domain multiplexing NOMA and other NOMA [2–4]. According to the
performance evaluation index of NOMA system, designing the transmitter scheme and
improving system performance has become the key research issues of the NOMA
system [5–8]. In the NOMA system, the power allocation has a great impact on the user

© Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2020

Q. Liang et al. (Eds.): CSPS 2019, LNEE 571, pp. 2182–2190, 2020
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-13-9409-6_265
 A NOMA Power Allocation Strategy Based on Genetic Algorithm 2183

throughput performance which not only affects the total system throughput but also has
a great impact on the throughput of each user. Therefore, a reasonable power allocation
algorithm plays an important role in the NOMA system on effectively reducing the
multiple access interface between user signals and increasing the throughput of the
system [9].
Literature [10] studied a power and spectrum allocation method based on user
deployment scenarios in a cell, dividing users into cell edges and cell center users and
allocating more power to cell edge users to reduce inter-cell interference. More
bandwidth resources are allocated to increase the average throughput and cell edge
throughput of the entire cell, and the spectrum resource allocation is based on Frac-
tional Frequency Reuse (FFR). In [11], a fixed power allocation algorithm is proposed.
Because the algorithm only performs power allocation according to a fixed geometric
ratio and ignores the current channel state of the user, the shortcoming of the algorithm
is that the system performance is low, and the advantage is that the computational
complexity of the system is higher. The fractional power allocation algorithm proposed
in [12] distributes the user power according to the path loss ratio of the user. The
algorithm has lower throughput performance and computational complexity than the
full space search algorithm.
The structure of this paper is as follows: Sect. 2 introduces the downlink NOMA
system model, Sect. 3 proposes a power allocation algorithm based on genetic algo-
rithm, Sect. 4 simulates and analyzes through system parameters, and Sect. 5 gives a
summary.

2 System Model

Figure 1 is a system model of the NOMA downlink, which describes a whole process
of a cell downlink based on a power allocation transmission signal and signal reception
based on serial interference cancellation (SIC).

Fig. 1. Downlink NOMA system model diagram

2184 L. Yin et al.

In Fig. 1, the number of orthogonal subcarriers used by the system for transmission
is N, the total bandwidth of the system is B, and the bandwidth of a single subcarrier is
B/N, thus there are K users requesting communication services in the cell, the power
allocated by the user on subcarrier n is denoted as pi,n, and the signal transmitted by the
i-th user on the n-th subcarrier is xi,n, the total transmit power ptot in the system is
constant that is the sum of the transmit powers of all users cannot be greater than the
total transmit power of the system. The multi-user shares the same time-frequency
resource unit, and the number of users superimposed on the n-th sub-carrier is repre-
sented by kn. After superimposing kn users, the superimposed signal xn transmitted by
the base station on the subcarrier n is expressed as

X
kn
pffiffiffiffiffiffiffi
xn ¼ pi;n xi;n : ð1Þ
i¼1

The received signal of the user UEk on the subcarrier n can be expressed as

yk;n ¼ hk;n xn þ wk;n

X
kn
pffiffiffiffiffiffiffi ð2Þ
¼ hk;n pi;n xi;n þ wk;n ;
i¼1

where hk,n represents the complex channel gain of user k on the subcarrier n.
Equation (2) can be expanded to

pffiffiffiffiffiffiffi X
kn
pffiffiffiffiffiffiffi
yk;n ¼ hk;n pk;n xk;n þ hk;n pi;n xi;n þ wk;n ; ð3Þ
i¼1;i6¼k

pffiffiffiffiffiffiffi
where hk;n pk;n xk;n is the desired signal that user k needs to obtain,
Pkn pffiffiffiffiffiffiffi
hk;n i¼1;i6¼k pi;n xi;n is the interference of other user signals on the user signal, and
wk,n is the superimposed signal of Gaussian white noise and other cell interference.
In the downlink of NOMA, the optimal sorting scheme of serial interference is
sorted according to the signal tointerference and noise ratio, that is according to
 2 . 2 PK

Pi;n hi;n  hi;n  Pj;n þ N0;j . The user eliminates the signals of other users after
j¼1
correctly decoding them, thereby realizing the correct decoding of their own signals.
After SIC detection, the signal to interference and noise ratio of the user UE-m on the
n-th subcarrier is

pm;n Cm;n
SINRm;n ¼ Pm1
1 þ i¼1 pi;n Cm;n
pm;n ð4Þ
¼ 1 Pm1 ;
Cm;n þ i¼1 pi;n
 A NOMA Power Allocation Strategy Based on Genetic Algorithm 2185

 2
where Cm;n ¼ hm;n  =r2n represents the signal to noise ratio of the user m on the n-th
subcarrier.
According to Eq. (4), the transmission rate of the user UEm on the n-th subcarrier
after the receiver is processed by the SIC in the downlink of the NOMA system is
obtained.

B
Rm;n ¼
log2 ð1 þ SINRm;n Þ: ð5Þ
N

The total transmission rate of the first n subcarriers is

X
K
B
Rn ¼
sk;n log2 ð1 þ SINRk;n Þ: ð6Þ
k¼1
N

If user k is allocated on subcarrier n, then sk,n = 1, otherwise sk,n = 0.

It can be seen from Eqs. (4) to (5) that the base station can flexibly control the
transmission rate of the user by adaptively controlling the transmission power ratio of
the user. The power allocation scheme is very important, which directly affects the cell
and capacity, the channel capacity of the edge users, and the fairness of the users.

3 Power Allocation Algorithm

The target criterion of the power allocation algorithm studied in this paper is to
maximize the total transmission rate of K users, which can be expressed as

X
N X
K
max sk;n Rk;n : ð7Þ
n¼1 k¼1

The power allocated by the user in the power allocation algorithm satisfies the
constraint:

N X
X K X
K
C1 : pk;n  0; 8k; n; C2 : pk;n \ptot ; 8k; n; C3 : sk;n ¼ kn ; 8k; n ð8Þ
n¼1 k¼1 k¼1

The objective function of this paper is a nonlinear function and there are discon-
tinuity constraints in the objective function, since the genetic algorithm directly
operates on the structural object, there is no limitation of the derivative and function
continuity and it has inherent hidden parallelism and better global optimization ability.
In order to effectively solve the constrained nonlinear optimization problem, this paper
uses genetic algorithm to solve the user’s power allocation problem to maximize the
objective function.
The basic idea of the power allocation algorithm based on genetic algorithm is to
search the initial power allocation matrix according to the power constraint condition.
2186 L. Yin et al.

The genetic algorithm is called a group, and the population is composed of a certain
number of users allocated by users, and different users are based on the allocated
subcarriers. Differently determining sk,n and according to the target criterion of maxi-
mizing the total transmission rate of the system, the conditionally optimal power
allocation matrix is obtained through several iterative evolutions.
The general flow of the genetic algorithm is shown in Fig. 2:

Determine the code

IniƟalizaƟon group

Whether the
Y
terminaƟon condiƟon Local opƟmal soluƟon
is met

Survival of the fiƩest

Cross

VariaƟon

Fig. 2. Genetic algorithm flow chart

In this algorithm, the user allocation on the subcarriers is randomly assigned and
the number of users on each subcarrier is less than or equal to 2, and the basic steps of
power allocation based on genetic algorithm are as follows:
(1) Initializing the number of system users K, the number of orthogonal subcarriers
N in the cell, and the cell radius;
(2) Generating noise and determining the channel gain hk,n according to the number
of users and the radius of the cell;
(3) Set the total transmission power of the system, verify the relationship between the
total transmission rate of the system and the number of multiplexed users; set the
number of users, and verify the relationship between the total transmission rate of
the system and the total transmission power of the system;
 A NOMA Power Allocation Strategy Based on Genetic Algorithm 2187

(4) According to the total transmission power of the system and the number of system
users, the system user is evenly distributed power, and the initial power allocation
matrix P of the system user is determined;
(5) Determining sk,n according to whether the user is allocated on the subcarrier, and
using the building block hypothesis theory of genetic algorithm to process the
objective function to obtain the optimal power allocation matrix P when the
objective function is maximized;
(6) Calculating the total system transmission rate under the current system conditions
according to the obtained optimal power allocation matrix P;
(7) Initializing the number of system users K, the cell radius R, the number N of
orthogonal subcarriers in the cell and the corresponding power allocation matrix P.

4 Simulation and Analysis

A. Simulation parameter
The simulation platform built in this part studies the effects of five power allocation
algorithms on the total transmission rate of the system. The parameters used in the
simulation are shown in Table 1.

Table 1. Simulation parameter table

Simulation parameter Value
Cell radius 200 m
Carrier frequency 2 GHz
Number of carriers 3
Total power limit 10 w
Minimum power distribution per unit 0.1 w
Channel model Frequency selective Rayleigh fading channel
Channel estimation Ideal

B. Simulation results and analysis

The following figures are the simulation results and analysis of this paper.
It can be seen from the Fig. 3 that in the NOMA system, whether the fixed power
allocation algorithm is used or the full space search algorithm is the genetic algorithm
studied in this paper, the total system transmission rate increases with the number of
multiplexed users N. In the case of fixed system total power allocation, the total
transmission rate of the genetic algorithm proposed in this paper is similar to the full-
space search algorithm and better than the fractional power allocation algorithm, fixed
power allocation algorithm and average power allocation algorithm.
2188 L. Yin et al.

45
Fixed power allocation algorithm
Full space search power allocation algorithm
40 Genetic algorithm

Total transmission rate(bps/Hz)

35

30

25

20

15
3 4 5 6 7 8
The number of multiplexed users(N)

Fig. 3. Reuse number of users and transmission rate diagram

It can be seen from the Fig. 4 that when the number of system multiplexed users is
the same, the total transmission rate of the system increases with the increase of the
transmission power. The total transmission rate of the power allocation method based
on the genetic algorithm approximates the total transmission rate of the full-space
search system and is better than the score.

60
Average power allocation algorithm
Fixed power allocation algorithm
Fractional power allocation algorithm
55
Total system transmission rate(bps)

Full space search algorithm

Genetic algorithm

50

45

40

35

30
10 20 30 40 50 60
Total transmission power of the system Ptot(W)

Fig. 4. Total transmit power and transmission rate diagram

 A NOMA Power Allocation Strategy Based on Genetic Algorithm 2189

90
Full space search power allocation algorithm
80 Genetic algorithm

70

Computational complexity
60

50

40

30

20

10

0
3 4 5 6 7 8

The number of multiplexed users(N)

Fig. 5. Comparison of computational complexity

Figure 5 is a comparison of the computational complexity of the full-space search

algorithm and the proposed algorithm. It can be seen from the figure that the com-
putational complexity of the full-space search algorithm and the genetic algorithm
increases with the number of system users. When the number of system users reaches a
certain level, the computational complexity of the full-space search algorithm is much
higher than the computational complexity of the genetic algorithm. It can be seen that
the system performance of the genetic algorithm is similar to the full space search
algorithm. When the number of users exceeds a certain number, the computational
complexity of the algorithm is low, and the performance of the power allocation
algorithm based on genetic algorithm is better than the fixed power allocation algo-
rithm. Therefore, the power allocation algorithm of the algorithm studied in this paper
is superior to the full space search algorithm, the fractional power allocation algorithm,
the fixed power allocation algorithm and the average power allocation algorithm.

5 Conclusions

In this paper, the NOMA power allocation based on genetic algorithm is studied. The
search of genetic algorithm is based on the group, it can automatically acquire and
guide the optimized search space without determining the rules, and adaptively adjust
the search direction. Therefore, it has a faster and more random search ability. In the
search process, the user allocated on the subcarrier is searched according to the con-
straint to meet the requirements of the objective function. The process of genetic
algorithm is simpler than the full space search algorithm, and the search complexity is
low. In this paper, the users on the subcarriers are randomly assigned criteria and the
total system capacity is maximized. The simulation is based on the total power of the
fixed system and the number of subcarriers in the system. The simulation results show
2190 L. Yin et al.

that the genetic algorithm power allocation method studied in this paper has higher total
system capacity than the fixed power allocation algorithm and the full space search
power allocation algorithm.

Acknowledgements. This work was supported by National Natural Science Foundation of

China (61271236), Major Projects of Natural Science Research of Jiangsu Provincial Universities
(17KJA510004), and Postgraduate Research & Practice Innovation Program of Jiangsu Province
(No. KYCX18_0907).

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