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Faculty of Engineering and Computing
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Revolutionising Mobile Networks: DCU Study Targets Seamless Connectivity for All

A new study co-authored by Dr. Sobia Jangsher from DCU's School of Electronic Engineering is a major step toward a world where your phone never drops a connection, even in the most crowded areas.

The paper, published in IEEE Transactions on Vehicular Technology, introduces a new scheme to significantly boost network performance, particularly for users at the very edge of a mobile network. While most users enjoy fast, reliable connections, those at the "cell edge”, the furthest from a mobile base station, often experience connectivity and performance limitations, especially in dense urban areas where networks can become congested and interference is a major problem.

To address this, the research team developed a novel approach called Spatially Aligned Carrier Aggregated Non-Orthogonal Multiple Access (SACA-NOMA). This innovative scheme integrates several key technologies to allow multiple users to share the same frequency at the same time, group multiple frequency bands together to create a wider channel, and enable multiple base stations to work together to serve a user. The system efficiently distributes the available spectrum and allocates power fairly among users while using spatial differentiation to manage interference.

The numerical results from the study demonstrate a significant leap forward in network performance. The proposed SACA-NOMA scheme offers a performance gain of about 60% when compared to the multi-cell hybrid NOMA-OMA scheme and a remarkable 300% gain over single-cell OMA schemes. 

Read the full paper: Edge Users Spectrum Efficiency Maximization Using Spatially Aligned Carrier Aggregated NOMA in Dense Multi-Cell Networks, IEEE Transactions on Vehicular Technology here.