Performance Analysis of Uplink Adaptive NOMA Depending on Channel Knowledge

Abstract: Non Orthogonal Multiple Access (NOMA) is a key technique to satisfy large users densities in future wireless networks. However, NOMA may provide poor performance compared to Orthogonal Multiple Access (OMA) due to inter-user interference. In this paper, we obtain closed-form expressions of the uplink NOMA and OMA throughputs when no Channel State Information at Transmitter (CSIT) is available, and of the average data rates assuming that instantaneous rates should be larger than a minimum threshold when full CSIT is available. Analytical comparisons of OMA and NOMA prove that there is no global dominant strategy valid in all situations. Based on this conclusion, we propose a new multiple-access (MA) strategy called NOMA-Adaptive (NOMA-A) that selects the best MA technique between OMA and NOMA. NOMA-A aims at maximizing the sum throughput in the no CSIT case, and the probability that both users are active in the full CSIT case. NOMA-A is shown to outperform the other strategies in terms of sum throughput and rate.