On the Performance of Non-Orthogonal Multiple Access in 5G Systems with Randomly Deployed Users

TL;DR

This paper analyzes the performance of non-orthogonal multiple access (NOMA) in 5G cellular systems with randomly deployed users, highlighting its advantages in sum rates and the importance of proper parameter choices for outage performance.

Contribution

It provides analytical insights into NOMA's performance in realistic user deployment scenarios, emphasizing the impact of data rate and power allocation choices.

Findings

NOMA achieves higher ergodic sum rates

Outage performance depends on data rate and power allocation

Incorrect parameter choices can cause guaranteed outage

Abstract

In this letter, the performance of non-orthogonal multiple access (NOMA) is investigated in a cellular downlink scenario with randomly deployed users. The developed analytical results show that NOMA can achieve superior performance in terms of ergodic sum rates; however, the outage performance of NOMA depends critically on the choices of the users' targeted data rates and allocated power. In particular, a wrong choice of the targeted data rates and allocated power can lead to a situation in which the user's outage probability is always one, i.e. the user's targeted quality of service will never be met.