Multitype Services Coexistence in Uplink NOMA for Dual-Layer LEO Satellite Constellation

Abstract

The upcoming mega low-earth orbit (LEO) high-throughput satellite constellation is regarded as an emerging paradigm shift in the fifth-generation-advance (5GA) networks. In this article, we propose a multitype services coexistence handover (MSCH) nonorthogonal multiple access (NOMA) scheme for a dual-layer mega LEO satellite constellation, which can simultaneously and efficiently provide uplink NOMA for three types of fifth-generation user equipments (UEs): 1) mission-critical communications (MCCs) UEs (CUs); 2) massive machine-type communications (mMTCs) UEs (MUs); and 3) enhanced mobile broadband (eMBB) UEs (EUs). The EUs are mainly served in the higher layer satellites for longer service duration and may handover to the lower layer satellites to coexist with CUs or MUs. Moreover, the CUs and MUs perform grant-based (GB) and grant-free (GF) NOMA on resource blocks (RBs) in the lower layer satellites, respectively. Then, we derive the closed-form expressions of three specific key performance indicators (KPIs), i.e., outage probability (OP), system throughput (ST), and ergodic capacity (EC) in the MSCH NOMA scheme, and design five corresponding NOMA algorithms. Simulation results verify the accuracy of our theoretical derivations and show that the proposed NOMA schemes can achieve a better KPI performance than the state-of-the-art ones.