Non-Orthogonal Multiple Access (NOMA) for 5G Wireless Networks: A Performance Evaluation

Abstract

The exponential growth in mobile data traffic and the proliferation of connected devices necessitate advanced multiple access techniques to enhance spectral efficiency and support diverse quality-of-service (QoS) requirements. Non-Orthogonal Multiple Access (NOMA) has emerged as a promising candidate for next-generation wireless networks, particularly 5G, due to its ability to serve multiple users simultaneously within the same frequency-time resource by leveraging power domain multiplexing and successive interference cancellation (SIC). This paper presents a comprehensive performance evaluation of NOMA in 5G wireless networks. It delves into the fundamental principles of NOMA, compares it with traditional Orthogonal Multiple Access (OMA) schemes, and examines various performance metrics such as spectral efficiency, user fairness, and energy efficiency. The study employs both analytical modeling and simulation techniques to assess NOMA's efficacy under different network scenarios, including varying user distributions and channel conditions. The results indicate that NOMA significantly outperforms OMA in terms of spectral efficiency and user connectivity, albeit with challenges related to complexity and error propagation in SIC. The paper concludes with insights into optimizing NOMA performance and discusses future research directions to address existing limitations.