Implementation and Performance Analysis of NOMA on Software Defined Radio

Utilizing non-orthogonal multiple access (NOMA) in the downlink enhances the communication network’s capacity and improves its spectral efficiency. It can theoretically serve a large number of users in each time/frequency slot as compared to orthogonal multiple access techniques that only serve one user per orthogonal slot. This technique is of importance for ultra-dense networks in beyond 5G and 6G networks for mobile communication, as there is a need for massive connectivity, high spectral efficiency and high system throughput. However, there is dearth of research on practical implementation and studying the impact of different channel encoding. Hence the objective of this paper is to implement NOMA on software defined radio platform considering different channel coding schemes. We also observe the execution and memory usage for three popular channel encoders/decoders used for implementing NOMA, namely Hamming code, Convolutional code and low-density parity check (LDPC) code. A look-up table is utilized for designing the LDPC encoder, and its viability is analyzed. Further, comparison of bit error rate for the considered model is performed.