Non-Orthogonal Multiple Access for Mobile VLC Networks with Random Receiver Orientation

Abstract

We consider a downlink multiuser visible light communications (VLC) network where users randomly change their location and vertical orientation. The non-orthogonal multiple access (NOMA) strategy is adopted to serve multiple users simultaneously, and, hence, to improve spectral efficiency. We propose two novel user scheduling schemes for NOMA, which are referred to as individual and group-based. In order to further reduce the computational complexity and link overhead, novel limited-feedback schemes (on channel quality) are also proposed, which basically involve mean vertical angle (instead of its instantaneous value). Moreover, a two-bit feedback scheme is proposed for group-based user scheduling, which relies on not only distance but also vertical angle (in contrast to conventional one-bit feedback with distance only). The outage probability and sum-rate expressions are derived analytically, which show a very good match with the simulation data. Numerical results verify that the practical feedback scheme with the mean vertical angle achieves a near-optimal sum-rate performance, and the two-bit feedback significantly outperforms the one-bit feedback.