  Rate splitting (RS) and wireless edge caching are essential means for meeting
the quality of service requirements of future wireless networks. In this work,
we focus on the cross-layer co-design of wireless edge caching schemes with
sophisticated physical layer techniques, which facilitate non-orthogonal
multiple access and interference mitigation. A flexible caching-aided RS (CRS)
technique is proposed that operates in various modes that specify the cache
placement at the receivers. We consider two caching policies: the intelligent
coded caching (CC), as well as the well-known most popular content (MPC)
policy. Both caching policies are integrated within the design parameters of RS
in order to serve multiple cache-enabled receivers. The proposed technique is
investigated from a system level perspective by taking into account spatial
randomness. We consider a single cell network consisting of center and edge
receivers and provide a comprehensive analytical framework for the evaluation
of the proposed technique in terms of achieved rates. Specifically, we derive
the rate achieved at each receiver under minimum rate constraints while
incorporating the cache placement characteristics. Numerical results are
presented which highlight the flexibility of the proposed technique and show
how caching can be exploited in order to further boost the performance of RS.
