Performance analysis of PDMA-based hybrid satellite–terrestrial networks with decode-and-forward relaying

Abstract

As one of the most promising non-orthogonal multiple access (NOMA) technologies in 5G communication, pattern division multiple access (PDMA) has theoretically higher spectrum utilization and a larger communication capacity than conventional orthogonal multiple access (OMA) technologies. In this letter, PDMA is applied to hybrid satellite–terrestrial networks with decode-and-forward (DF) relaying in the downlink, and an in-depth study on the performance of outage probability (OP), ergodic capacity and system throughput is performed. For a more comprehensive analysis, hybrid satellite–terrestrial relay networks (HSTRNs) with conventional OMA technology are used in the comparative analysis. Analysis and simulation results show that PDMA-based hybrid satellite–terrestrial relay networks outperform the other system in terms of OP and ergodic capacity.