Performance Evaluation of Relay-Aided CR-NOMA for Beyond 5G Communications

Non-orthogonal multiple access (NOMA) is considered as one of the most promising technologies to handle the issue of spectrum scarcity in beyond fifth-generation (5G) networks. Integrating NOMA in cognitive radio (CR) network is expected to usher a new era of reliable, seamless, and massive connectivity. In this regard, this work explores the relay selection problem in CR networks when operating in the spectrum sharing model. Specifically, the secondary users (SUs) in the CR-NOMA network opportunistically access the licensed spectrum resources to boost the number of accessible SUs sharing the limited and dynamic spectrum resources. Moreover, to improve the performance of far users, partial relay selection architecture is exploited at full-duplex (FD) and half duplex (HD) relays for both uplink and downlink communications. For in-depth performance evaluation, we provide closed-form expressions of the outage probabilities of the users in FD and HD relay-aided CR-NOMA networks. In addition to this, the analytical expressions of asymptotic outage probabilities and ergodic capacity are also provided which unveils the critical factors affecting the performance of CR-NOMA networks. To validate the derived expressions, extensive simulations are performed that demonstrate the accuracy of analytical expressions for FD and HD relay-aided CR-NOMA networks.