Quantum Search-Aided Multi-User Detection for Sparse Code Multiple Access

With the explosive proliferation of mobile devices, the scarcity of communication resources has emerged as a critical issue in the next generation (NG) communication systems. To overcome this, non-orthogonal multiple access (NOMA) has been shown to provide a beneficial spectral efficiency gain, while supporting massive connectivity. Sparse code multiple access (SCMA) is one of the NOMA schemes, but its application is hampered by its high-complexity multi-user detection. Fortunately, quantum search techniques were shown to substantially reduce the complexity of multi-user detectors (MUD). However, the quantum search-aided multiuser detection of SCMA is an open problem at the time of writing. Hence, we conceive a pair of quantum search-aided MUDs for SCMA, namely, a quantum-assisted message passing algorithm (Q-MPA) -based MUD and a quantum-assisted sphere decoder-based MPA (QSD-MPA) MUD.