A Study of Non-Orthogonal Multiple Access in Underwater Visible Light Communication Systems

This paper presents an analytical investigation into the performance of an underwater optical wireless cellular network based upon the non orthogonal multiple access (NOMA) scheme in the presence of weak underwater turbulence. The performance metrics used are the probability that all nodes in a network can achieve a connection and the total cell capacity. Coverage probability and cell capacity are solved numerically and the results presented. Further it is shown that the strength of turbulence affects the maximum data rate supported by a cell as well as the coverage probability. In a NOMA cell however the number of users is shown to be a bigger limiting factor than turbulence.