Energy-Efficient Resource Allocation for NOMA-MEC Networks with Imperfect CSI

The combination of non-orthogonal multiple access (NOMA) and multi-access edge computing (MEC) can significantly improve the system performance including communication coverage, spectrum efficiency, etc. In this article, we focus on energy-efficient resource allocation for a multi-user multi-BS NOMA-MEC network with imperfect channel state information (CSI), where each user can upload its tasks to multiple base stations (BSs) for remote executions. We propose an optimization scheme, including task assignment, power allocation and user association, to minimize energy consumption. Specifically, we transform the probabilistic problem into a non-probabilistic one. To efficiently solve this nonconvex energy minimization problem, we first investigate the one-user two-BS case and derive the optimal closed-form expressions of task assignment and power allocation via the bilevel programming method. Subsequently, based on the derived optimal solution, we propose a low complexity algorithm for the user association in the multi-user multi-BS scenario. Simulations demonstrate that the proposed algorithm can yield much better performance than the conventional OMA scheme and the identical results with lower complexity from the exhaustive search with the small number of BSs.