Pattern Division Multiple Access Featuring Amplify-and-Forward Relaying in an Uplink Network

NOMA is one of key enabling technologies for prosumer energy management. We studied co-operative techniques useful for establishing pattern division multiple access (PDMA) in an uplink network. In particular, we examined amplify-and-forward (AF) relaying with PDMA (AF-PDMA) over Rayleigh channels. To characterize the performance of AF-PDMA, we derived outage probability and system throughput data, and performed diversity analysis. To verify the performance advantages afforded by the AF-PDMA scheme, we allocated fixed power values to users when comparing the performance to that of a non-cooperative PDMA scheme, an AF relay with orthogonal multiple access (AF-OMA) scheme, and an OMA scheme. Monte Carlo simulation revealed that AF-PDMA outperformed the other three schemes in terms of outage probability and system throughput.