Cooperative Hybrid Spectrum Sharing: A NOMA-based Approach

Non-orthogonal multiple (NOMA) access using successive interference cancellation and cognitive radio are two promising techniques for enhancing the spectrum efficiency and utilization for future wireless communication systems. This paper presents a NOMA-based cooperative hybrid spectrum sharing protocol for cognitive radio networks. A two phase decode-and- forward (DF) relaying scheme in a multi-relay scenario is considered. Each secondary transmitter is grouped into one of the two clusters: a non-cooperative cluster (NCC) and a cooperative cluster (CC). The cluster head (CH) of the CC working as the best DF relay for the primary system is permitted to transmit its own signal superimposed on the primary signal using a NOMA approach in exchange for cooperation. On the other hand, the CH of the NCC transmits in parallel with the primary system satisfying a predefined peak transmit power and peak interference power constraints that guarantee a given primary quality of the service requirement. It is demonstrated that the performances of both the primary and secondary systems increase with the increasing number of secondary nodes. The simulation and theoretical results affirm the efficacy of the proposed protocol compared to the traditional overlay and underlay models in terms of the outage probability and the ergodic capacity.