MDC-NOMA: Multiple Description Coding-Based Nonorthogonal Multiple Access for Image Transmission

Recently, nonorthogonal multiple access (NOMA) technology has emerged as a key technology for enhancing power and spectrum efficiency of fifth-generation (5G) wireless networks. On the one hand, multiple-description coding (MDC) is a coding technique with high efficiency and strong antiinterference capabilities that can combat burst interference and solve the problem of unreliable transmission due to link impairments and network congestion. In this article, by combining the principles of MDC and NOMA, we propose a hybrid MDC-NOMA scheme to further improve system throughput and transmission robustness. In the proposed scheme, a base station communicates with two users simultaneously over two orthogonal subchannels. In this setup, one subchannel is sufficient to reconstruct an image of acceptable quality. We derive the closed-form expressions for the outage probability and ergodic rate and analyze its peak signal to noise ratio, bit error rate, and visual transmission performance. Furthermore, numerical and simulation results are presented in order to validate the analysis.