Performance Analysis of SSK-NOMA

In this paper, we consider the combination between two promising techniques: space-shift keying (SSK) and non-orthogonal multiple access (NOMA) for future radio-access networks. We analyze the performance of SSK-NOMA networks and provide a comprehensive analytical framework of SSK-NOMA regarding bit error probability (BEP), ergodic capacity, and outage probability. It is worth pointing out that all analysis also stand for conventional SIMO-NOMA networks. We derive closed-form exact average BEP (ABEP) expressions when the number of users in a resource block is equal to three (i.e., L=3). Nevertheless, we analyze the ABEP of users when the number of users is more than three, i.e., L≥3, and derive bit-error-rate (BER) union bound since the error propagation due to iterative successive interference canceler (SIC) makes the exact analysis intractable. Then, we analyze the achievable rate of users and derive exact ergodic capacity of the users, so the ergodic sum rate of the system is in closed forms. Moreover, we provide the average outage probability of the users exactly in the closed form. All derived expressions are validated via Monte Carlo simulations and it is proved that SSK-NOMA outperforms conventional NOMA networks in terms of all performance metrics (i.e., BER, sum rate, outage). Finally, the effect of the power allocation (PA) on the performance of SSK-NOMA networks is investigated, and the optimum PA is discussed under BER and outage constraints.