Downlink AP coordination based OFDMA and NOMA protocols for the next-generation WLANs

In recent years, with the increasing number of terminal connections, high-density deployment scenarios have become important scenarios for future wireless networks. Ultra-high throughput (EHT) in high density deployment scenarios is the technical goal of IEEE 802.11be, the next-generation wireless local area network (WLAN) standard. However, in a high-density deployment scenario, interference suppression between BSSs is serious, which seriously affects the throughput of a WLAN. And the resources available are limited. Therefore, for the next generation WLAN standard, this paper proposes a downlink transmission scheme based on AP coordination and the orthogonal frequency division multiple access (OFDMA) protocol and the non-orthogonal multiple access (NOMA) protocol, named Co-OFDMA–NOMA scheme. The core idea is to transform the interference and suppression relationship between neighboring BSSs into the relationship of mutual coordination and assistance through the Co-OFDMA–NOMA protocol proposed in this paper. Firstly, a downlink transmission scheme named the Co-OFDMA–NOMA protocol is designed. In addition, the protocol and its framework structure have good backward compatibility. Theoretical analysis shows that the proposed Co-OFDMA–NOMA protocol has significant performance gain, and simulation results prove the effectiveness of the scheme.