applied
sciences
Article
Effective Capacity Analysis of NOMA Networks with
Short Packets
Xiurong Zhang 1, * , Xinwei Yue 2 and Shaoli Kang 3






Citation: Zhang, X.; Xie, J.; Yue, X.;
Kang, S. Effective Capacity Analysis
of NOMA Networks with Short
Packets. Appl. Sci. 2021, 11, 11438.
https://doi.org/10.3390/
app112311438
Academic Editors: Bo Zeng, Ce Shang,
Xueqian Fu, Xiaoyan Sun
and Xinwei Shen
Received: 15 October 2021
Accepted: 29 November 2021
Published: 2 December 2021
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Attribution (CC BY) license (https://
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4.0/).
Appl. Sci. 2021, 11, 11438. https://doi.org/10.3390/app112311438
1 School of Electronic and Information Engineering, Beihang University, Beijing 100191, China
2 The Key Laboratory of Modern Measurement & Control Technology, Ministry of Education and also with the
School of Information and Communication Engineering, Beijing Information Science and Technology
University, Beijing 100101, China; xinwei.yue@bistu.edu.cn
3 The State Key Laboratory of Wireless Mobile Communications, China Academy of
Telecommunications Technology, Beijing 100191, China; kangshaoli@datangmobile.cn
* Correspondence: zhangxiurong@buaa.edu.cn
Abstract: Low latency and a massive connection have become the requirements of energy internet
wireless communication. Effective capacity analysis of non-orthogonal multiple access (NOMA)
networks with short packets is of vital importance in energy internet communication planning and
design. Low-latency communications are one of the main application scenarios in next-generation
wireless networks. This paper focuses on the effective capacity of NOMA networks, where the
finite blocklength, delay exponent, and transmission error probability are taken into account. New
exact and asymptotic expressions of effective capacities are derived for arbitrarily ordered users
with a finite blocklength. Based on the analytical results, the high Signal-to-Noise Ratio slopes of
effective capacity in NOMA networks are carefully attained. The numerical results validate that
(a) non-orthogonal users are capable of obtaining a larger effective capacity when the blocklength
decreases, and that (b), as the value of the error probability and delay exponent increases, the effective
capacity of non-orthogonal users worsens.
Keywords: short packet communications; non-orthogonal multiple access; effective capacity; finite
blocklength
1. Introduction
Energy internet information collection and data transmission depends on the planning
and construction of a wireless communication network with a high data transmission rate
and a low delay. The scientific design of a communication network ensures the two-way
transmission of energy internet information flow. The advanced application of energy inter-
net is to provide application services to users, and the design of a wireless communication
network is a guarantee of user experience quality. NOMA technology supports massive
connections and low latency, so it can promote the deep integration of an information sys-
tem and a physical system. The high-speed communication of NOMA can be used for the
efficient networking of integrated energy systems and improve the quality and efficiency
of integrated energy services. The massive data in the energy internet of things require that
the communication network has the ability to use limited spectrum resources to achieve
large terminal access, a high communication rate, and a large system capacity. NOMA
can realize the simultaneous transmission and demodulation of signals from multiple
destination nodes, and it can obtain higher spectral efficiency than traditional orthogonal
multiple access (OMA). Applying NOMA to the power line communication system can
better deploy the future energy internet of things and improve the communication service
quality of equipment terminals. Effective capacity analysis of NOMA networks with short
packets is of vital importance in energy internet communication planning and design.
With the fifth generation (5G) mobile communication network being tested and de-
ployed all over the world, the sixth generation (6G) mobile communication system has
https://www.mdpi.com/journal/applsci
Appl. Sci. 2021, 11, 11438 2 of 13

gradually attracted extensive interest in academia and industry [1,2]. Supporting massive
connections and a low latency are two of the main distinguishing features of 6G networks.
Millimeter waves and NOMA are two important techniques that can significantly improve
spectral efficiency. Millimeter wave technology can achieve high speeds and reliability
by enhancing various wireless links in 5G communication, and can be used as terahertz
in 6G communication [3,4]. NOMA is capable of sharing the same bandwidth resources
among multiple users [5,6]. As one of the important schemes of NOMA, Sparse Code
Division Multiple Access (SCMA) combines code domain signal superposition, a sparse
spread spectrum, and multi-dimensional constellation design, so that the SCMA system
has a high overload gain and a high frequency spectral efficiency while maintaining low
complexity [7]. Successive interference cancellation (SIC) is implemented at nearby users
with a stronger channel to strike out the interference from distant users. An exceptional
spectral efficiency of NOMA has been attained by invoking users’ distinguishing channel
conditions or a quality of service (QoS) [8].
Low-latency communications are the foundation for enabling business-sensitive appli-
cations with rigorous QoS [9,10]. A short packet with finite blocklength codes is an efficient
approach to achieve low-latency communications, where the effective capacity can be em-
ployed to characterize the performance of wireless networks under the condition of certain
delay constraints [11]. Due to the finitude of blocklength, the decoding error probability of
a receiver cannot be ignored in short packet communications. As a result, it is pivotal to
highlight the performance of NOMA networks with low-latency communications [12–14].
The authors of [12] studied the trade-off between transmission latency and decoding error
probability. In [13], the closed-form expressions of block error rates (BERs) were derived,
and the superior performance of NOMA was proved by reducing transmission delay.
Through the optimization of the transmission rate and power allocation, the authors of [14]
aimed to maximize the effective throughput of users with a high channel gain and ensure
that other users meet the lowest effective throughput for short-packet communications.
In [15], the authors introduced NOMA technology to secure short packet communication
in the loT. In [16], the effects of the transmission signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) and the delay
exponent on the effective capacity and queue delay violation probability were studied
for low-latency communications. The author in [17] optimized the resources of the multi-
carrier NOMA system for packet communication. Through joint carrier allocation and
transmission power allocation, the transmission rate is allocated to each user to maximize
the total weighted effective throughput. The authors in [18,19] researched the capacity of
NOMA networks, but the performance of the last user was not taken into consideration.
To the best of our knowledge, the effective capacities of M users for NOMA networks with
finite blocklength have not been well addressed.
In light of the above discussions, we studied the NOMA latency performance with
a finite blocklength. New closed-form and asymptotic expressions of effective capacity
for sorted users were derived using Gauss–Laguerre quadrature. Numerical simulation
shows that (1), as the blocklength decreases, non-orthogonal users are capable of attaining
a larger effective capacity, and (2) the diversification of the error probability and the delay
exponent has a great impact on users’ effective capacities.
The rest of this paper is organised as follows. Section 2 describes the model of the
NOMA system with short packet communications. In Section 3, we derived both new
exact and asymptotic expressions of effective capacities and then obtained high SNR slopes
of effective capacity in NOMA networks. Numerical simulation results for verifying our
analysis are presented in Section 4 and are followed by our conclusion in Section 5.

2. Network Model
In this section, a downlink NOMA system with short packet communications and the
effective capacity of NOMA networks are presented in the following sections.
In a downlink NOMA system with short packet communications, a base station (BS)
serves M users within a finite blocklength of n symbol periods, as shown in Figure 1.
Appl. Sci. 2021, 11, 11438 3 of 13

The packets of each user are stored temporarily in the memory space, i.e., an individual
buffer, and then transmitted in a first-input-first-output process. As a further development,
the packets of M users are superposed at the BS. To simplify the analyses, the BS and
users are single antenna nodes, respectively. The wireless communication links from
the BS to users are subjected to independent block Rayleigh fading. The corresponding
channel coefficients are denoted as h1 , · · · , hm , · · · , and h M , respectively. To fully exploit
the advantage of NOMA with regard to orthogonal multiple access (OMA), it can be
assumed that the channels from the BS to the users are distinguished largely and ordered
as |h1 |2 ≤ · · · ≤ |hm |2 ≤ · · · ≤ |h M |2 . It is assumed that the BS is capable of obtaining
channel state information of wireless links.

Um xm x1

 
User M xm
hM
xM
Blocklength
hm
x1
User m
x2

Interference
h1
BS
...
|hM |2 xm
|hm |2
...
Channel gains

User 1
|h1 |2
xM
... ...
Figure 1. Illustration of a downlink NOMA system with short packet communications.

When detecting the m-th user’s signal xm , the signals of the previous m − 1 user will
interfere. Therefore, the SIC detection method is adopted. When the signals xm is detected,
the signals of the previous m − 1 user is detected and deleted. The m-th user receives not
only its own signal but also the signal of the previous m − 1 user. Therefore, the blocklength
of the xm must not be shorter than the blocklength of the xm−1 , where xm is the signal
related to Um .
Based on the above explanations, the received signal at the m-th user is

M
∑
p
ym = hm ai Ps xi + nm , (1)
i =1

where ai is a coefficient for power allocation of the i-th user (1 ≤ i ≤ M). From the
perspective of user fairness, the power coefficients of users satisfy the relationship of
a1 ≥ · · · ≥ am ≥ · · · ≥ a M [8,20]. Ps is the transmitting power at the BS. nm ∼ CN (0, N0 )
denotes the additive Gaussian noise where mean = 0 and variance = N0 at the m-th user.
Using SIC technology, before decoding the m-th user’s information, the p-th user’s
information ( p < m < M ) is first decoded and then deleted successfully. Hence, the
received signal-to-interference-plus-noise ratio (SINR) for the m-th user can be given by
the following formula:

ρ | h m |2 a m
γm = , (2)
M
2
ρ| hm | ∑ ai + 1
i = m +1
Appl. Sci. 2021, 11, 11438 4 of 13

where ρ = NPs0 stands for the transmitting SNR. After the M-th user successfully detects
and deletes the signals of the previous M − 1 users, the SNR of user M is

γ M = ρ | h M |2 a M . (3)

According to Shannon’s theory, the decoding error probability of the receiver can
be ignored when the coding blocklength tends to infinity [21]. On the contrary, the error
probability of receiving ends for short packet communications is non-negligible, which
mainly works to achieve the goal of low latency. Under these situations, the achievable
rates of short packet communications cannot be characterized by the Shannon formula
at a given blocklength. As previously mentioned in [11], the transmission rate of the
data packet is a function of SNR, block length, and error probability. As a consequence,
the achievable rates of the m-th user and M-th user are given by
r
Vm −1
Rm (n, ε) = log(1 + γm ) − Q ( ε ), (4)
n
and
r
VM −1
R M (n, ε) = log(1 + γ M ) − Q ( ε ), (5)
n
   
2
respectively, where Vm = 1 − 1
2 ( log e ) and VM = 1− 1
(log e)2 are the
( 1 + γm ) (1+ γ M )2
characteristics of the channel, referred to as the channel dispersion for the m-th user and
R∞ t2
M-th user, respectively. Q( x ) = x √1 e− 2 dt stands for the Gaussian function. ε denotes
2π
the transmission error probability, which has a relationship of ε ∈ [0, 1].

Effective Capacity
Effective capacity is an approach to characterize the quality of service of the link layer
for wireless channels. The main features of the effective capacity, i.e., Ce , is to characterize
the wireless channel with the purpose of supporting quality of service [22], which is
defined as a maximum rate while maintaining a certain latency range in the delay outage
probability and the maximum delay bound Dmax . It is worth noting that Pdelay ≈ e−θCe Dmax
is an approximated delay outage probability, where θ is the delay exponent to reflect the
system tolerance for a long latency. As pointed out by [23], the effective capacities are
formulated by

1 n h io
Cm,e = − ln E ε + (1 − ε)e−nθm Rm , (6)
nθm

and
1 n h io
C M,e = − ln E ε + (1 − ε)e−nθ M R M , (7)
nθ M

respectively, where θm is a delay exponent of user the m, and θ M is a delay exponent of

the M-th user. (6) is effective capacity function, which stands for the maximum achievable
rate [20]. Equation (1) of [24] is ergodic capacity, which is independent of the blocklength.
It can be seen from Jenson inequality E[log(1 + x )] ≤ log( E(1 + x )] that there is a differ-
ence between the inside expectation operator and the outside expectation operator in the
logarithmic functions.

3. Performance Evaluation
By substituting (4) into (6) and applying some arithmetic manipulations, the effective
capacity of the m-user can be rewritten as
Appl. Sci. 2021, 11, 11438 5 of 13

1 n h io
Cm,e = − ln E ε + (1 − ε)(1 + γm )α e β m δm , (8)
nθm
q
where δm = ln12 1 − (1 + γm )−2 .
In light of the power series expansion and taking the first three items, i.e., e x ≈ 1
2
+ x + x2 , an approximated expression can be obtained as follows:
( !#)
1  αm ( β m δm )2
Cm,e ≈− ln E ε + (1 − ε)(1 + γm ) × 1 + β m δm + (9)
nθm 2


1 
 
Cm,e = − ln ε + E (1 − ε)(1 + γm )αm
nθm  | {z }
I1
( rh )
βm −2
i
+E (1 − ε)(1 + γm )αm 1 − ( 1 + γm )
ln 2
| {z }
I2


h i 
−2
 
2 2 
 β m 1 − ( 1 + γm ) (log2 e)  
+ E (1 − ε)(1 + γm )αm . (10)
 2 


| {z }


I3

Upon substituting (2) into (10), we obtain I1 as follows:

" !αm #
ρ | h m |2 a m
Z ∞ αm
ρam x
I1 = (1 − ε)E 1+ = (1 − ε ) 1+ f |h 2 ( x )dx. (11)
m|
ρ|hm |2 ãm + 1 0 ρ ãm x + 1

With the help of order statistics in [25], the channel gain PDF of user m |hm |2 is
  m −1   M−m
M!
f |h 2 (x) = f 2 (x) × F 2 (x) 1 − F 2 (x) , (12)
m| (m − 1)!( M − m)! |h̃m | |h̃m | |h̃m |
 2
where h̃m  is the unsorted channel gain between the BS and user m. The corresponding
cumulative distribution function (CDF) is expressed as F 2 ( x ) = 1 − e− x . By substituting
|h̃m |
(12) into (11) and then applying a binomial theorem, I1 can be calculated as follows:

m −1  Z ∞ αm
m−1

ρam x
I1 =(1 − ε)φm ∑ r
(−1) × 1+ e− xϕ dx
r =0
r 0 ρ ãm x + 1
m − 1 (−1)r
m −1   Z ∞ αm
ρam y
=(1 − ε)φm ∑ × 1+ e−y dy, (13)
r =0
r ϕ 0 ρ ãm y + ϕ

where φm = (m−1)M!!( M−m)!

and ϕ = M − m + r + 1. The expression of (13) can be further ap-
proximated as integral expressions using the virtue of the Gauss–Laguerre quadrature [26],

m −1 
m − 1 (−1)r P αm
ρam x p
 
I1 ≈ (1 − ε)φm ∑ r ϕ
× ∑ Hp 1 +
ρ ãm x p + ϕ
, (14)
r =0 p =1
Appl. Sci. 2021, 11, 11438 6 of 13

where x p is the abscissas, and H p is the weight of the Gauss–Laguerre quadrature. x p is the

( P!)2 x p
p-th zero of L P x p , H p can be formulated as H p = 2 , and P is a complexity-vs-
[ LP+1 ( x p )]
accuracy trade-off parameter, which can ensure a trade-off between complexity and accu-
racy.
Similar to the derived processes of I1 , I2 and I3 can be given by

(1 − ε) m−1 m − 1 (−1)r P
 

ln 2 r∑ ϕ p∑
I2 ≈ φm β m Hp
=0 r =1
αm s  −2
ρam x p ρam x p
 
× 1+ 1− 1+ , (15)
ρ ãm x p + ϕ ρ ãm x p + ϕ

and

φm β2m (1 − ε) m − 1 (−1)r P
m −1 

I3 ≈
2(ln 2)2
∑ r ϕ p∑
Hp
r =0 =1
αm "  −2 #
am ρx p am ρx p
 
× 1+ 1− 1+ , (16)
ãm ρx p + ϕ ãm ρx p + ϕ

respectively. Finally, upon substituting (14)–(16) into (10), the effective capacities of the
m-th user networks with short packet communications is obtained in (17).

Theorem 1. The effective capacity of the m-user with short packet communications can be given by
*
m −1 
m − 1 (−1)r

1
Cm,e ≈ − ε + (1 − ε)φm ∑
nθm r =0
r ϕ
(
P
βm P
αm
ρam x p

× ∑ Hp 1 +
ln 2 p∑
+ H p (1
p =1
ρ ãm x p + ϕ =1
αm s  −2
ρam x p ρam x p β2m

+ 1− 1+ +
ρ ãm x p + ϕ ρ ãm x p + ϕ 2(ln 2)2
" −2 #)
P 
am ρx p
αm 
am ρx p
× ∑ Hp 1 + 1− 1+ , (17)
p =1
ãm ρx p + ϕ ãm ρx p + ϕ

M
where ϕ = M − m + r + 1, φm = M!
( m −1) ! ( M − m ) !
, αm = − nθ m
ln 2 , ãm = ∑ ai , and β m = θm
i = m +1
√ −1
nQ (ε).

Theorem 2. The effective capacity of the M-user with short packet communications can be given by

1 (1 − ε ) β M ∆
C M,e ≈ − ln{ε + (1 − ε)∆ +
nθ M ln 2
v"
ρx p a M −2
#
(1 − ε) β2M ∆
u  
u
×t 1− 1+ +
r+1 2(ln 2)2
"
ρx p a M −2
  #)
× 1− 1+ , (18)
r+1

M −1
(−1)r P 
ρa M x p
α M √ −1
where ∆ = M ∑ ( Mr−1) r +1 ∑ Hp 1 + r +1 and α M = − nθ M
ln 2 , β M = θ M nQ ( ε ).
r =0 p =1
Appl. Sci. 2021, 11, 11438 7 of 13

Slope Analysis
The high SNR slope is used to display the effective capacity of wireless communication,
which can be expressed as

Cm∞ (ρ)
S = lim , (19)
ρ→∞ log(ρ)

where Cm ∞ ( ρ ) is the asymptotic effective capacity in the high SNR region. To carry out more

adequate research, the expression of the effective capacity of the m user is further derived
from (8)

1 n h θm n √ √ −1
io
Cem = − ln E ε + (1 − ε)(1 + γm )− ln 2 eθm n Vm Q (ε) . (20)
θm n

When ρ → ∞, γm and Vm can be expressed as follows:

ρ | h m |2 a m am
γm = → , (21)
ρ|hm |2 ãm + 1 ãm

"   −2 #  2
am 1
Vm → 1 − 1 + . (22)
ãm ln 2

Hence, substituting (21) and (22) into (20), the asymptotic effective capacity of the
m-th user is calculated as follows:
  
1 2 θ √ nQ−1 ε
rh
a m −2
i
   − θm n 1 − ( 1 + ) ( ) m ( ) 
∞ = − 1 ln E ε + (1 − ε ) 1 + am
Cm,e
ln 2
e
ãm ln 2 
θm n  ãm 
 rh  (23)
 − θ m n β m 1 − ( 1 + a m ) −2 ( 1 ) 2 
i
 
ln 2
= − θm1 n ln ε + (1 − ε) 1 + ãamm
ãm ln 2
e .
 

Remark 1. Upon substituting (23) into (19), the high SNR slope of the m-th user is zero.

Similarly, the expression of the effective capacity of the M user is further derived
from (7)
√ √
  
1 θM n −1
CeM = − ln E ε + (1 − ε)(1 + γ M )− ln 2 eθ M n VM Q (ε) . (24)
θM n

When ρ → ∞, Vm can be expressed as follows:

  −2  1 2 
1 2

VM = 1 − 1 + ρ|h M |2 a M → . (25)
ln 2 ln 2

Hence, substituting (3) and (25) into (24), the asymptotic effective capacity of the M-th
user at a high SNR region is expressed by
  
 1
 θM n √
 ln 2 
∞ = − 1 ln E ε + (1 − ε )
C M,e ρ
e β M VM 
θM n 1 +| h 2
 ρ M | aM  (26)
= − θ M1 n ln{ε}.

Remark 2. Upon substituting (26) into (19), the high SNR slope of the M-th user is zero.
Appl. Sci. 2021, 11, 11438 8 of 13

4. Numerical Results
Here, the simulation results are presented to display the impacts of the delay exponent
and the transmission error probability on NOMA networks with short packet commu-
nications. Assuming that there are three non-orthogonal users in the network and the
corresponding power allocation factors are allocated to be a3 = 0.2, a2 = 0.3 and a1 = 0.5,
the finite blocklength is equal to 300, i.e., n = 300, and the delay exponents and transmis-
sion error probability are set to θ1 = θ2 = θ3 = 0.01 and ε = 10−5 , respectively. We chose
the conventional orthogonal multiple access (OMA) as a generality baseline, and fairness
can be guaranteed.
Figure 2 plots the effective capacity of the three users vs. the SNR for a simulation
setting with n = 300, θ1 = θ2 = θ3 = 0.01, and ε = 10−5 . The effective capacity curves
of the user m (i.e., m = 1 and m = 2) for NOMA networks with short packets are plots
based on (17). The effective capacity curve of the user M (i.e., M = 3) is plotted based on
(18). Clearly, the simulation results are matched with the theoretical expressions. It can be
observed that the effective capacity of NOMA networks is a throughput ceiling, and this is
a result of the impacts of transmission error probability. Another observation is that the
effective capacity of OMA is worse than that of User 3, as our the capacities of Users 1 and
2.This phenomenon demonstrates that NOMA with low-latency communications can also
serve multiple users, and other papers [8,20,27] show the same conclusions.

4
Simulation
3.5 Conventional OMA
Effective Throughput Ceiling
Effective Capacity − User 1
Effective Capacity(bits/channel use)

3 Effective Capacity − User 2

Effective Capacity − User 3

2.5

1.5

0.5

0
0 10 20 30 40 50
SNR (dB)

Figure 2. Effective capacity vs. the transmit SNR, with n = 300, θ1 = θ2 = θ3 = 0.01, and ε = 10−5 .

Figure 3 shows the effective user capacity vs. SNR with a different blocklength (i.e.,
n = 400, 300, and 200). As shown in Figure 3, as the blocklength decreases, the effective
capacity of User 3 becomes much greater, while there are almost no changes for Users 1
and 2. The main reason for this is that the distant users suffer serious impacts from the
process of decoding.
Figure 4 plots the effective capacity of the three users vs. ε for a simulation setting
with n = 300 and θ1 = θ2 = θ3 = 0.01. As can be seen in Figure 4, the transmission error
probability has a greater influence on NOMA networks under low-latency communica-
tions. As the value of ρ increases, the effective capacity of NOMA networks substantially
decreases. This is because that ε becomes a major factor relative to the low SNRs.
Appl. Sci. 2021, 11, 11438 9 of 13

Simulation
Effective Capacity − User 1
5 Effective Throughput Ceiling

Effective Capacity (bits/channel use)

Effective Capacity − User 2
Effective Capacity − User 3
4

n = 200,300,400
3
1.2

1
2
0.8

23 24 25 26 27
1

0
0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45 50
SNR (dB)

Figure 3. Effective capacity vs. the transmit SNR, with θ1 = θ2 = θ3 = 0.01, and ε = 10−5 .

3.5

Simulation
3 Effective Capacity − User 1
Effective Capacity − User 2
Effective Capacity(bits/channel use)

Effective Capacity − User 3

2.5

1.5
ρ = 12, 16, 20 dB

0.5

0 −6 −5 −4 −3 −2 −1 0
10 10 10 10 10 10 10
Transmission Error probability ε

Figure 4. Effective capacity vs. the transmission error probability ε, with n = 300, and θ1 = θ2 =
θ3 = 0.01.

Figure 5 plots the effective capacity vs. θ. It can be observed that a larger value of the
delay exponent leads to a smaller effective capacity. However, the high SNR improves the
effective capacity at a given θ, and the effective capacities of Users 1 and 2 seem to be more
stable than that of User 3.
Appl. Sci. 2021, 11, 11438 10 of 13

3.5
Simulation
Effective Capacity − User 1
3 Effective Capacity − User 2
Effective Capacity − User 3

Effective Capacity (bits/channel use)

2.5

ρ = 11, 13, 15 dB
1.5

0.5

0 −5 −4 −3 −2 −1
10 10 10 10 10
Delay Exponent θ

Figure 5. Effective capacity vs. the delay exponent θ, with n = 300, ε = 10−5 .

Figure 6 plots the effective capacities of the three users vs. the SNR and blocklength
for a simulation setting with θ1 = θ2 = θ3 = 0.01 and ε = 10−5 . As can be seen in Figure 6,
the effective capacity of User 1 is mainly affected by the SNR, and the blocklength has
little effect. With respect to User 2, the effective capacity is affected by the SNR and the
blocklength. The effective capacity of User 3 increases with the increase in SNR and the
decrease in blocklength. This can be explained by the fact that, in the NOMA system,
the blocklength of User 2 is not shorter than the blocklength of User 1; otherwise, the
detection of User 2 will not succeed. The blocklength of User 3 is not shorter than those of
the other two users at the same time.
Figure 7 shows the influences of blocklength and SNR on the user’s effective capacity.
The effective capacity of non-orthogonal users increases with SNR and eventually tends to
be stable in the high SNR region. In the low SNR region, the change of blocklength has little
impact on the effective capacity. The asymptotic effective capacities of non-orthogonal users
are convergent in the high SNR region. In the high SNR region, the change in the effective
capacity of User 3 decreases significantly with the increase in blocklength. Therefore,
the performance of User 3 is better with a small blocklength. However, the effective
capacities for Users 1 and 2 increase slowly with the increase of blocklength. It should
be noted that, when the blocklength is equal to 650, the capacity will neither increase
nor decrease. In order to comprehensively ensure the performances of the three users,
the blocklength setting range can be between 600 and 650. Therefore, the blocklength
affects the user’s effective capacity. Therefore, we can ensure the performance of users by
selecting the appropriate blocklength and SNR.
Appl. Sci. 2021, 11, 11438 11 of 13

User 1

Effective Capacity
(bits/channel use)
1

0.5

0
30 25 20 700 800
15 500 600
10 5 300 400
SNR (dB) 200
Blocklenght n
User2

Effective Capacity
(bits/channel use)
2

0
30 25 20 700 800
15 500 600
10 5 300 400
200 Blocklenght n
SNR (dB)
User 3
Effective Capacity
(bits/channel use)

10

0
30 25 20 700 800
15 500 600
10 5 300 400
SNR (dB) 200
Blocklenght n

Figure 6. Effective capacity vs. the transmit SNR vs. the blocklength n, with θ1 = θ2 = θ3 = 0.01,
and ε = 10−5 .

user 1 user 2 user 3 Reference=0.1

Effective Capacity
(bits/channel use)

(bits/channel use)
Effective Capacity

ρ=5 dB 1
0.4 ρ=10 dB

0.2 0.5

0 0
200 300 400 500 600 700 800 200 300 400 500 600 700 800
Blocklenght n Blocklenght n
Effective Capacity

Effective Capacity
(bits/channel use)

(bits/channel use)

2 3
ρ=15 dB ρ=20 dB
1.5
2
1
1
0.5

0 0
200 300 400 500 600 700 800 200 300 400 500 600 700 800
Blocklenght n Blocklenght n

ρ=25 dB 6
ρ=30 dB
Effective Capacity
Effective Capacity

(bits/channel use)
(bits/channel use)

4
3 4

2
2
1
0 0
200 300 400 500 600 700 800 200 300 400 500 600 700 800
Blocklenght n Blocklenght n

Figure 7. Effective capacity vs. the blocklength n, with θ1 = θ2 = θ3 = 0.01, and ε = 10−5 .

5. Conclusions
In this paper, NOMA networks with short packet communications were studied, and
the effective capacity for non-orthogonal users was used as the performance evalution
standard. We derived the exact expressions of effective capacity for non-orthogonal users.
We then derived the asymptotic expressions of the effective capacity for non-orthogonal
users when the SNR is infinite and concluded that the slope of the curve of the effective
capacity for non-orthogonal users in the high SNR region is equal to zero. In addition,
Appl. Sci. 2021, 11, 11438 12 of 13

the relationship between the effective capacity of multiple users, delay parameters, the
transmission error rate, the SNR, and the blocklength has been discussed in detail by
simulations. The results show that, when the related parameters remain unchanged,
the user’s effective capacity decreases with the increase in the transmission error rate or the
delay parameters, increases with the increase in SNR or blocklength, and tends to be stable
in the high SNR region. Numerical results have also indicated that the NOMA networks
can provide better an effective capacity in comparison with the OMA scheme.

Author Contributions: Methodology, X.Y.; Supervision, S.K.; Writing—review and editing, X.Z. All
authors have read and agreed to the published version of the manuscript.
Funding: This research received no external funding.
Institutional Review Board Statement: Not applicable.
Informed Consent Statement: Not applicable.
Data Availability Statement: The data used to support the findings of this study are available from
the corresponding author upon request.
Conflicts of Interest: The authors declare no conflict of interest.

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