  Non-orthogonal multiple access (NOMA) is an essential enabling technology for
the fifth generation (5G) wireless networks to meet the heterogeneous demands
on low latency, high reliability, massive connectivity, improved fairness, and
high throughput. The key idea behind NOMA is to serve multiple users in the
same resource block, such as a time slot, subcarrier, or spreading code. The
NOMA principle is a general framework, and several recently proposed 5G
multiple access schemes can be viewed as special cases. This survey provides an
overview of the latest NOMA research and innovations as well as their
applications. Thereby, the papers published in this special issue are put into
the content of the existing literature. Future research challenges regarding
NOMA in 5G and beyond are also discussed.
