ISBN: 978-1-5090-2690-6
On the Performance of Perfect and Imperfect SIC in
Downlink Non Orthogonal Multiple Access (NOMA)
Muhammad Rehan Usman, Arsla Khan, Muhammad Arslan Usman, Yun Seong Jang and Soo Young Shin
Department of IT Convergence
Kumoh National Institute of Technology (KIT)
Gumi, 39177, South Korea
Email: rehanusman@gmail.com, arslakhan@kumoh.ac.kr, arslanusman@msn.com, scweeny@humoh.ac.kr,
wdragon@kumoh.ac.kr
Abstract—Non orthogonal multiple access (NOMA) is a new
radio access technique considered to be a possible candidate for
5G and beyond. Recent studies confirm that it provides better
performance gains as compared to the orthogonal multiple access
(OAM) techniques currently in use. This paper investigates the
performance of downlink NOMA using the ideal and non-ideal
successive interference cancellation (SIC) conditions. The ideal
and non-ideal SIC conditions are referred as perfect and
imperfect SIC respectively in this study. The purpose of this
study is to provide a more realistic analysis of SIC in downlink
NOMA rather than considering the perfect SIC conditions.
Simulation results are provided at the end of the paper in terms
of bit error rate (BER) at the receiver end using both perfect and
imperfect SIC.
Keywords—Bit error rate; multiple access; NOMA; non-
orthogonal; successive interference cancellation.
I. INTRODUCTION
Intense growth in cellular traffic has increased the demand
of network capacity, high data rates and throughput [1].
According to survey conducted by Cisco, user devices are
expected to exceed the number of users by 2018, meaning that
users will have multiple devices [2]. To cope with the
increasing demand of high bandwidth and capacity, the 3rd
Generation Partnership Group (3GPP) has specified many
solutions for the 3.9 and 4th generation (4G) mobile
communication systems like the Long-Term Evolution (LTE)
and LTE-Advanced. One of these solutions is the use of
orthogonal multiple access (OMA) techniques to achieve good
system-level throughput. However, with the increasing
volume of mobile traffic and inclusion of technologies like
Internet of Things (IoT) researchers are now working for the
further evolution of 4G towards 5th generation (5G) mobile
communication systems and beyond (future radio access
(FRA)). To go beyond 5G and further enhance the radio
access technologies, researchers are exploring possibilities of
new multiple access techniques. One of such recently
proposed techniques is non orthogonal multiple access
(NOMA) [3, 4], which is considered to be a promising
solution for achieving better system performance than the
existing multiple access techniques.
In downlink NOMA, user equipments (UEs) use power
domain to separate the downlink signals from each other.
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Non-orthogonality of this scheme allows overlapping of the
signals from different UEs to form a single transmit signal by
exploiting the power domain [4]. In easy words, transmit
information of multiple UEs is superposed, in the power
domain, by non-orthogonally multiplexing it over the same
signal. This gives a totally new dimension for separating the
signal information of multiple UEs and giving them access to
a base station (BS). To use NOMA successfully it must be
used together with advanced transmission/ reception
technique, e.g., dirty paper coding (DPC) or successive
interference cancellation (SIC) [5, 6]. In this work we have
used SIC to retrieve the user’s information at the UE receiver.
In SIC, the UE receiver is able to receive two or more signals
simultaneously. The stronger signal is decoded and subtracted
from the combined signal, then the weaker one is extracted
from the residue [7]. To perform SIC in downlink NOMA, it is
important to know that which UE will perform SIC, known as
order of decoding. Briefly, this order is determined by the
increasing channel gain of UEs from a respective BS [3].
Based on this order, the UE that has high channel gain, known
as near user (NU), decodes the signal of the low channel gain
users, known as far users (FUs). Once the signal is decoded
then NU discards the unwanted signal information using SIC.
This concept of SIC in downlink NOMA is shown in Fig. 1.
To date, several studies have been conducted on SIC-
NOMA. The importance of SIC-NOMA is well detailed in [3]
starting with the evolution of cellular multiple access from 3G
to FRA, also shown in Table I. Similar study was also
conducted in [4] with an extension of BS antenna beam
sectorization concept for user pairing to perform SIC. The
Power
Frequency
SIC of FU NU Signal FU Signal
Signal Decoding decoding
Base Station (BS)
Near User (NU) FAR User (FU)
High Low
Received SINR
Fig. 1. Downlink NOMA with SIC
102
 TABLE I. CELLULAR MULTIPLE ACCESS, FROM 3G TO FRA [3] TRANSMITTER

Power
Information
3G 3.9/4G FRA (Expected) UE-1/NU
Bits
Modulation Allocation of
UE 1 = P1
User Non-orthogonal Orthogonal Non-Orthogonal
Multiplexing (CDMAa) (OFDMAb) (NOMA)
IFFT CP
OFDM OFDM
Signal
Single Carrier (or DFTc-s- (or DFT-s-
Waveform Information
Power
OFDM) OFDM) UE-2/FU
Bits
Modulation Allocation of
UE 2 = P2
Link AMC + Power
Fast TCPd AMCe
Adaptation Allocation

Rayleigh Fading + AWGN

Image Non-orthogonal (For Imperfect Conditions)
Channel
Orthogonal between Superposition and
assisted by power
users power allocation
control
a.
Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA) RECEIVER
b. FFT Timing
Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiple Access (OFDMA)
Detection
c.
Discrete Fourier transform (DFT)
d. Detector Detector
Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) Received Signal
UE-1 (NU) SIC UE-2 (FU) FFT CP Detection
e. at UE 1 (NU)
Adaptive Modulation and Coding Signal Signal

Fig. 2. Transmitter/ Receiver for downlink NOMA with SIC

authors of [6], investigated the system-level throughput using
SIC-NOMA in the cellular downlink assuming proportional
low gain user (FU). The received signal for the j UEs is given
fairness (PF) based radio resource allocation. In [8], link-level
as:
performance of downlink NOMA was evaluated using ‫ݕ‬௝ ൌ ݄௝ ൈ ‫ ݏ‬൅ ݊௝ 
multiple SIC receiver designs. So far, most of the research
work conducted on SIC-NOMA has considered ideal SIC ே
conditions, i.e., interference from the FUs is assumed to be ‫ݕ‬௝ ൌ ݄௝ ൈ ቆ෍ ‫ݏ‬௝ ඥܲ௝ ቇ ൅ ݊௝ ሺʹሻ
perfectly cancelled at the NU receiver, in other words NU has ௝ୀଵ
perfect knowledge of the FUs signal information. But very
limited work has been performed using the non-ideal where ݄௝ is the channel response from BS to the j UEs, ݊௝ is
conditions; referred to as imperfect SIC condition in this the additive white Gaussian noise (AWGN) with zero mean
paper. Imperfect conditions mean that the signal information and variance and the transmission power ܲ௝ is given by:
of FU at NU is distorted using the effects of Rayleigh fading
channel and AWGN, which appears to be a more realistic ‫ן‬௝ ൈ ܲ஻ௌ
ܲ௝ ൌ ሺ͵ሻ
scenario. The contribution of this work is to provide the ܰௌ஻
performance of SIC in downlink NOMA under the imperfect
conditions, hence providing a more realistic analysis as where ‫ן‬௝ denotes the power assignment ratio of the j UE, ܲ஻ௌ
compared to the idea conditions of SIC. The simulation results is the transmission power of the serving BS and ܰௌ஻ are the
are provided in terms of bit error rate (BER) performance of number of sub-bands in the system. The power assignment
the UE receiver for both NU and FU. ratio ‫ן‬௝ can take any theoretical value. In practice, predefined
granularity can be used at BS to quantize ‫ן‬௝ for reducing the
Rest of the paper is organized as follows; the system
signaling overhead to inform users about ‫ן‬௝ [4].
model, for the perfect and imperfect SIC conditions, is
explained in Section II, simulation results are provided in As explained earlier that in downlink NOMA, the SIC is
Section III and finally the concluding remarks are provided in implemented at the UE receiver, so it is important to know the
Section IV of this paper. optimal order for decoding the received signal. This order is
determined in the order of the increasing channel gain
II. SYSTEM MODEL ଶ
normalized by noise, ห݄௝ ห ൗܰ଴ǡ௝ . Based on this, any user with
In this section we explain the system model of this paper. high channel gain can correctly decode the signals of the users
The block diagram of system model with the transmitter and appearing before that user in the order. If we consider that
receiver is shown in Fig. 2. For the analysis we consider that a there is some UE-a with high channel gain in the total j UEs
BS transmits a signal for j user equipments (UEs) with the then, in easier terms, UE-a can decode the signals of the UEs
transmission power ܲ௝ . Then the transmitted signal will be ଶ
given as: whose ห݄௝ ห ൗܰ଴ǡ௝ is lower than ȁ݄௔ ȁଶ Τܰ଴ǡ௔ . In this case the
ே desired signal at UE-a will be given as:
‫ݏ‬ൌ෍ ‫ݏ‬௝ ඥܲ௝ ሺͳሻ
௝ୀଵ ே
‫ݕ‬௔ ൌ ݄ ௔ ൈ ‫ݏ‬௔ ඥܲ௔ ൅ ݄௔ ൈ ቆ෍
ᇣᇧᇧᇤᇧᇧᇥ ‫ݏ‬௝ ඥܲ௝ ቇ ൅ ݊௝ ሺͶሻ
where ‫ݏ‬௝ are superposition coded signals of the ݆ users and ݆ ‫א‬ ஽௘௦௜௥௘ௗௌ௜௚௡௔௟
ᇣᇧᇧᇧᇧᇧᇧᇤᇧᇧᇧᇧᇧᇧᇥ
௝ୀ௔ାଵ
ሾͳǡ ǥ ǡ ܰሿ. In our case, for simplicity, we have considered that ்௢௕௘ோ௘௠௢௩௘ௗ௨௦௜௡௚ௌூ஼
ܰ ൌ ʹ where ݆ ൌ ͳ is the high gain user (NU) and ݆ ൌ ʹ is the

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 As we have considered that j = 1, 2, so in the two UE case,
if we assume that ȁ݄ଵ ȁଶ Τܰ଴ǡଵ ൐ ȁ݄ଶ ȁଶ Τܰ଴ǡଶ then UE-1
performs the SIC since it comes last in the order, i.e., UE-1
has high channel gain than UE-2. In this case, (4) can be
rewritten for UE-1 as:
‫ݕ‬ଵ ൌ ݄ଵൈ
ᇣᇧ ‫ݏ‬ଵ ඥܲ
ᇧᇤᇧ ᇧᇥଵ ൅ ݄ଵൈ
ᇣᇧ ‫ݏ‬ଶ ඥܲ
ᇧᇤᇧ ᇧᇥଶ
஽௘௦௜௥௘ௗௌ௜௚௡௔௟ ்௢௕௘ோ௘௠௢௩௘ௗ௕௬ௌூ஼
Equation (5) gives the received signal of the NU, after
which SIC is performed to remove the unwanted information
for decoding the desired information. To perform SIC, as
mentioned earlier, we have used two cases; with perfect
conditions and with imperfect conditions.
A. Perfect SIC Receiver
In this case, the NU is considered to have complete and
perfect knowledge of the FU signal information. In this way,
interference from the FUs is assumed to be perfectly cancelled
at the NU receiver. In total j UEs, the detection of UE-a signal
using perfect SIC can be given by using (4):
‫ݕ‬௔ െ ൫σே௝ୀ௔ାଵ ‫ݏ‬௝ ඥܲ௝ ൯
‫ݏ‬௔ ൌ ቞ ቟ሺ͸ሻ
ඥܲ௔
where, ‫ہ‬Ǥ ‫ ۂ‬denotes detection of the signal including its
demodulation. For two UE case, (6) can be rewritten for UE-1
(NU) as:
‫ݕ‬ଵ െ ‫ݏ‬ଶ ඥܲଶ
‫ݏ‬ଵ ൌ ቞ ቟ሺ͹ሻ
ඥܲଵ
B. Imperfect SIC Receiver
In this case, it is considered that NU does not have perfect
knowledge of the FU signal information. So it is assumed that
the interference from the FUs cannot be perfectly removed at
the NU. This is achieved by distorting the signal information
of all FUs at the NU by adding the effects of Rayleigh fading
channel and AWGN, hence creating a more realistic scenario
than the perfect SIC. For total j UEs, the signal information for
the interfering FUs at UE-a is given as:
ே
‫ݏ‬ෝఫ ൌ ݄௝ ൈ ቆ෍ ‫ݏ‬௝ ඥܲ௝ ቇ ൅ ݊௝ ሺͺሻ
௝ୀ௔ାଵ
where ݄௝ denotes the Rayleigh fading channel and ݊௝
represents the AWGN. The retrieved signal at UE-a is then
given as:
‫ݕ‬௔ െ ‫ݏ‬ෝఫ
‫ݏ‬௔ ൌ ቞ ቟ሺͻሻ
ඥܲ௔
Next section contains the simulation results for NU and FU
SIC performance in downlink NOMA.
III. PERFORMANCE EVALUATION
This section contains the simulation results for both NU
and FU using the perfect and imperfect SIC conditions in
൅ ݊௝ ሺͷሻ downlink NOMA.
A. Simulation Parameterand and Asumptions
We have conducted link level simulations to assess the
BER performance of NU and FU for both perfect and
imperfect conditions of SIC in downlink NOMA. For
simplicity a 2-UE scenario is assumed; cell center user as NU
and cell edge user as FU. In perfect SIC, we assume that NU
has complete knowledge of the FU signal information,
whereas in imperfect SIC, the signal information at NU
receiver is distorted using the Rayleigh fading channel and
AWGN for more realistic results. The simulation parameters
used are in compliance with the existing specifications of
LTE/ LTE-Advanced published by 3GPP [9]. The resource
blocks are defined as; we assume each resource block has 14
OFDM symbols in time domain and 12 subcarriers in
frequency domain. The simulation parameters are also shown
in Table II. In the simulation a result, the x-axis is defined by
the SNR of the users and y-axis gives the BER performance of
NU and FU.
B. Results and Performance
In the following, BER performance of the UE receivers is
shown with different modulation orders as mentioned in table
II. The power allocation ratio for the UE is set as; NU = 0.2
and FU = 0.8.
Figure 3 shows the BER performance for both NU and FU
using the binary phase shift keying (BPSK) modulation
scheme. It can be seen from the results that by introducing the
effects of Rayleigh fading channel and AWGN, the BER
TABLE II. SIMULATION PARAMETERS
Radio access scheme OFDM
Subcarrier separation 15 kHz
600
Number of Subcarriers
(50RBs)
FFTf size 2048
1.0 ms
Subframe length
(14 OFDM symbols)
Symbol Duration 66.67 μs + CP: 4.69 μs
Data modulation for cell center user BPSKg, QPSKh, 16QAMi, 32QAM
Data modulation for cell edge user BPSK, QPSK

For the two UE case, (8) can be rewritten as: Channel/ Noise Rayleigh fading channel/ AWGN
Maximum Doppler frequebncy 5.55 Hz
‫ݏ‬ෝଶ ൌ  ݄ଶ ൈ ‫ݏ‬ଶ ඥܲଶ ൅ ݊ଶ ሺͳͲሻ FFT timing detection Ideal
f.
Fast Fourier transform (FFT)
Then the retrieved signal at UE-1 (NU) will be given as: g.
Binary phase shift keying (BPSK)
h.
Quadrature phase shift keying (QPSK)
‫ݕ‬ଵ െ ‫ݏ‬ෝଶ
‫ݏ‬ଵ ൌ ቞ ቟ሺͳͳሻ i.
Quadrature amplitude modulation (QAM)
ඥܲଵ

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Fig. 3. BER performance using perfect and imperfect SIC for downlink
NOMA, Near User and Far User: BPSK
Fig. 4. BER performance using perfect and imperfect SIC for downlink
NOMA, Near User and Far User: QPSK
performance of NU is more realistic than the perfect SIC
results. Similar results are also shown for higher order
modulation scheme in Fig. 4 using quadrature phase shift
keying (QPSK). Same results are also deduced using the
adaptive modulation technique, i.e., for Fig. 5; NU = 16QAM,
FU = BPSK and for Fig. 6; NU = 32QAM and FU = QPSK.
Further, it is also seen that the perfect or imperfect SIC
conditions do not affect the performance of FU because SIC is
only performed at NU but not at FU. This study not only
provides more realistic results using SIC but we have also
managed to retrieve NU and FU signals using the adaptive
modulation schemes, as can be seen from the results in Figs. 5
and 6.
From the recent studies on downlink NOMA we found that
most of the research concentrates on the transmitter part but
very limited work has been performed on the receiver side.
This is mainly because of the complexity faced in retrieving
the NU signal, especially when it comes to more than 2-UE
cases as the NU has to perform SIC for multiple users with
low channel gain that are superimposed in the same signal. For
perfect SIC it is not difficult to retrieve the NU signal with
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Fig. 5. BER performance using perfect and imperfect SIC for downlink
NOMA, Adaptive modulation; Near User: 16 QAM and Far User: BPSK
Fig. 6. BER performance using perfect and imperfect SIC for downlink
NOMA, Adaptive modulation; Near User: 32 QAM and Far User: BPSK
multiple superimposed FU signals except for the device
processing capability. But for the imperfect SIC case the NU
signal complexity will increase hence giving a more realistic
interpretation of interference cancellation. This study can be
further extended to multiple superimposed signal case.
Secondly, in imperfect SIC, more realistic scenarios can be
created by considering the FU signals as unknown noise and
interference.
IV. CONCLUSION
In this study, the effects of imperfect condition for SIC are
investigated and are then compared with the perfect SIC
condition in the downlink NOMA. The imperfect conditions
are achieved by distorting the signal information of the FU at
the NU by adding the effects of Rayleigh fading channel and
AWGN, hence creating a more realistic scenario. The analysis
in this study is provided for multiple users but for simplicity
two-user case is considered for the simulation purpose. From
the results it can be seen that the overall analysis in this study
gives more realistic approach than considering the ideal SIC
conditions.

Acknowledgment
This research was supported by the MSIP (Ministry of
Science, ICT and Future Planning), Korea, under the ITRC
(Information Technology Research Center) support program
(IITP-2016-H8601-16-1011) supervised by the IITP (Institute
for Information & communications Technology Promotion).
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