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Cooperative NOMA Meets Emerging Technologies: A Survey for Next-Generation Wireless Networks

Mahmoud M. Salim, Suhail I. Al-Dharrab, Daniel Benevides Da Costa, Ali H. Muqaibel

TL;DR

The paper addresses the need for scalable, intelligent wireless networks in the 6G era by positioning Cooperative NOMA (C-NOMA) as a unifying framework. It develops foundational insights into C-NOMA's relaying protocols and then systematically examines integration with RF energy harvesting, cognitive radio, RIS, SAGIN, and ISAC, including semantic communication, edge computing, and haptic/XR applications. A comprehensive literature survey categorizes contributions by technology, relaying schemes, performance metrics, and optimization approaches (model-based, heuristic, AI-driven), and it highlights application orchestration across digital twins, XR, and e-health. The work identifies standardization, security, and cross-layer design as key open challenges, and argues that AI-enabled orchestration will be essential to realize C-NOMA's potential as a core pillar of next-generation intelligent networks.

Abstract

The emerging demands of sixth-generation wireless networks, such as ultra-connectivity, native intelligence, and cross-domain convergence, are bringing renewed focus to cooperative non-orthogonal multiple access (C-NOMA) as a fundamental enabler of scalable, efficient, and intelligent communication systems. C-NOMA builds on the core benefits of NOMA by leveraging user cooperation and relay strategies to enhance spectral efficiency, coverage, and energy performance. This article presents a unified and forward-looking survey on the integration of C-NOMA with key enabling technologies, including radio frequency energy harvesting, cognitive radio networks, reconfigurable intelligent surfaces, space-air-ground integrated networks, and integrated sensing and communication-assisted semantic communication. Foundational principles and relaying protocols are first introduced to establish the technical relevance of C-NOMA. Then, a focused investigation is conducted into protocol-level synergies, architectural models, and deployment strategies across these technologies. Beyond integration, this article emphasizes the orchestration of C-NOMA across future application domains such as digital twins, extended reality, and e-health. In addition, it provides an extensive and in-depth review of recent literature, categorized by relaying schemes, system models, performance metrics, and optimization paradigms, including model-based, heuristic, and AI-driven approaches. Finally, open challenges and future research directions are outlined, spanning standardization, security, and cross-layer design, positioning C-NOMA as a key pillar of intelligent next-generation network architectures.

Cooperative NOMA Meets Emerging Technologies: A Survey for Next-Generation Wireless Networks

TL;DR

The paper addresses the need for scalable, intelligent wireless networks in the 6G era by positioning Cooperative NOMA (C-NOMA) as a unifying framework. It develops foundational insights into C-NOMA's relaying protocols and then systematically examines integration with RF energy harvesting, cognitive radio, RIS, SAGIN, and ISAC, including semantic communication, edge computing, and haptic/XR applications. A comprehensive literature survey categorizes contributions by technology, relaying schemes, performance metrics, and optimization approaches (model-based, heuristic, AI-driven), and it highlights application orchestration across digital twins, XR, and e-health. The work identifies standardization, security, and cross-layer design as key open challenges, and argues that AI-enabled orchestration will be essential to realize C-NOMA's potential as a core pillar of next-generation intelligent networks.

Abstract

The emerging demands of sixth-generation wireless networks, such as ultra-connectivity, native intelligence, and cross-domain convergence, are bringing renewed focus to cooperative non-orthogonal multiple access (C-NOMA) as a fundamental enabler of scalable, efficient, and intelligent communication systems. C-NOMA builds on the core benefits of NOMA by leveraging user cooperation and relay strategies to enhance spectral efficiency, coverage, and energy performance. This article presents a unified and forward-looking survey on the integration of C-NOMA with key enabling technologies, including radio frequency energy harvesting, cognitive radio networks, reconfigurable intelligent surfaces, space-air-ground integrated networks, and integrated sensing and communication-assisted semantic communication. Foundational principles and relaying protocols are first introduced to establish the technical relevance of C-NOMA. Then, a focused investigation is conducted into protocol-level synergies, architectural models, and deployment strategies across these technologies. Beyond integration, this article emphasizes the orchestration of C-NOMA across future application domains such as digital twins, extended reality, and e-health. In addition, it provides an extensive and in-depth review of recent literature, categorized by relaying schemes, system models, performance metrics, and optimization paradigms, including model-based, heuristic, and AI-driven approaches. Finally, open challenges and future research directions are outlined, spanning standardization, security, and cross-layer design, positioning C-NOMA as a key pillar of intelligent next-generation network architectures.

Paper Structure

This paper contains 38 sections, 6 equations, 10 figures, 9 tables.

Table of Contents

  1. Introduction
  2. Motivation and Contributions
  3. Paper Organization
  4. Foundations and Background
  5. Basics of C-NOMA
  6. Relaying Protocols in C-NOMA
  7. Amplify-and-Forward
  8. Decode-and-Forward
  9. Hybrid Decode- and Amplify-and-Forward
  10. Integration Between C-NOMA and Emerging Technologies
  11. RF Energy Harvesting and C-NOMA
  12. Time-switching Protocol
  13. Power-splitting Protocol
  14. Hybrid Time switching and Power Splitting Protocol
  15. Cognitive Radio and C-NOMA
  16. ...and 23 more sections

Figures (10)

  • Figure 1: Envisioned future next-generation networks vision with C-NOMA.
  • Figure 2: Paper Organization.
  • Figure 3: A C-NOMA system model to explain the different relaying protocols.
  • Figure 4: Energy harvesting protocols in C-NOMA (a) System model with DRL optimization approach. (b) TS protocol. (c) PS protocol. (d) HTSPS protocol.
  • Figure 5: Comparing the performance of C-NOMA and OMA using full-duplex and half-duplex relaying for energy harvesting-based IoT communication scenario.
  • ...and 5 more figures