Channel Estimation and Pilot Design for Uplink Sparse Code Multiple Access System based on Complex-Valued Sparse Autoencoder

The existing multiuser detection schemes for uplink (UP) sparse code multiple access (SCMA) systems are based on a parallel message update for message passing algorithm (MPA). In this letter, a shuffled MPA (S-MPA) scheme for UP SCMA systems is proposed, based on a serial message update strategy. Since the updated messages can join the message propagation immediately in current iteration, the convergence rate is accelerated, so that the complexity of the proposed S-MPA scheme can be substantially reduced with negligible bit error rate (BER) degradation. Simulations show that the proposed S-MPA scheme with two iterations provides similar BER performance to the original MPA scheme with six iterations. Furthermore, a parallel form of the proposed S-MPA scheme, termed group S-MPA, is developed to decrease the detection delay of the proposed S-MPA scheme, which offers a good BER-latency tradeoff.

In this paper, we investigated channel estimation with decision feedback for sparse code multiple access (SCMA) system with diversity. In this scheme, symbols of SCMA codeword from J users are spread over K < J orthogonal resources with uncorrelated fading. For block fading model (flat fading) in uplink channel, it is required to estimate smaller number of channel coefficients per resource block than in the scheme without diversity where fading is identical for all orthogonal resources. The minimal length of orthogonal pilot signal for system with diversity can be decreased proportionally to the sparsity factor of SCMA codewords. Furthermore, the proposed scheme allows choosing flexible pilot lengths, while in a scheme without diversity this length should be a multiple of K. Data-feedback-aided algorithm with hard decisions from SCMA detector and from decoder of turbo code is used for channel estimation. The simulation results show performance gain when turbo decoder is included in feedback loop.

Sparse code multiple access (SCMA) is a new non-orthogonal multiple-access technique in future wireless networks. In SCMA uplink burst transmission, user detection and channel estimation require significant pilot overhead. Dispersive channels with relative small coherent frequency / time, as well as fading diversity techniques, both lead to a result that multiple fading blocks are taken during one transmission. In this paper, a new method of separating SCMA user detection and channel estimation among different fading blocks in dispersive channels is proposed to reduce pilot overhead. Further more, according to the sparsity of SCMA codebooks, a new mapping pattern from SCMA layers to physical resources is proposed to improve channel estimation performance with given pilots. The effectiveness of the proposal are described and analyzed, meanwhile the complexity is evaluated. Numerical simulations are performed to substantiate the performance of the proposed algorithm.

In this paper, we first study the average sum rate of sparse code multiple access (SCMA) systems, where a general scenario is considered under the assumption that the distances between the mobile users and the base station are not necessarily identical. Closed-form analytical results are derived for the average sum rate based on which an optimal factor graph matrix is designed for maximizing the capacity of the SCMA systems. Moreover, we propose a low-complexity iterative algorithm to facilitate the design of the optimal graph matrix. Finally, Monte Carlo simulations are provided to corroborate the accuracy of the theoretical results and the efficiency of the proposed iterative algorithm.

The sparse code multiple access (SCMA) is a promising candidate for bandwidth-efficient next generation wireless communications, since it can support more users than the number of resource elements. On the same note, faster-than-Nyquist (FTN) signaling can also be used to improve the spectral efficiency. Hence in this paper, we consider a combined uplink FTN-SCMA system in which the data symbols corresponding to a user are further packed using FTN signaling. As a result, a higher spectral efficiency is achieved at the cost of introducing intentional inter-symbol interference (ISI). To perform joint channel estimation and detection, we design a low complexity iterative receiver based on the factor graph framework. In addition, to reduce the signaling overhead and transmission latency of our SCMA system, we intrinsically amalgamate it with grant-free scheme. Consequently, the active and inactive users should be distinguished. To address this problem, we extend the aforementioned receiver and develop a new algorithm for jointly estimating the channel state information, detecting the user activity and for performs data detection. In order to further reduce the complexity, an energy minimization based approximation is employed for restricting the user state to Gaussian. Finally, a hybrid message passing algorithm is conceived. Our Simulation results show that the FTN-SCMA system relying on the proposed receiver design has a higher throughput than conventional SCMA scheme at a negligible performance loss.

Sparse code multiple access (SCMA) has been recognized as a promising candidate technique for fifth generation (5G) cellular network to improve spectral efficiency (SE). In this paper, physical layer security (PLS) in a downlink single-input single-output (SISO) SCMA system is investigated, which includes one base station (BS), multiple legitimate users and one eavesdropper. The aim of this paper is to maximize the ergodic secrecy sum rate (ESSR) of the SCMA system under the constraint of the transmit power of BS. A novel many-to-many two-side matching algorithm is then proposed. After a limited number of iterations, the algorithm converges to a pair-stable matching. Finally, simulation results indicate that the proposed algorithm outperforms the random scheme and the orthogonal multiple access (OMA) scheme.

Recently, sparse code multiple access (SCMA) is proposed as one of the important candidacies for the fifth generation (5G) radio access technique. SCMA is a non-orthogonal multiple access (NOMA) technique which allows multiple users share the same radio resource and thus increase spectral efficiency largely. In SCMA, a set of binary coded bits is mapped directly into a complex vector by use of a predefined multi-dimensional codebook. The sparsity of the codewords makes the near-optimal detection feasible through iterative message passing algorithm (MPA). The pursuit of higher spectral efficiency motivates us to study the performance of multiple-input-multiple-output (MIMO) SCMA system in this paper. Simulation results show that compared with the conventional MIMO-OFDM system, MIMO-SCMA can provide a gain up to 50% in data throughput with the aid of MPA technique.

The joint transmission scheme of polar codes and sparse code multiple access (SCMA) has been regarded as a promising technology for future wireless communication systems. However, most of the existing polar-coded SCMA (PC-SCMA) systems suffer from high latency caused by the feedback iteration and list decoding. In addition, the error performance of PC-SCMA systems is unsatisfactory for ultra-reliable transmission. Inspired by the compelling benefits of non-binary polar codes, in this paper, we design a non-binary polar-coded SCMA (NB-PC-SCMA) system with a free order matching strategy to address the issues of delay and reliability. Specifically, we first formulate a joint factor graph for NB-PC-SCMA and propose a non-binary successive cancellation list (NB-SCL) and damping based joint iterative detection and decoding (NSD-JIDD) multiuser receiver to improve the BER and latency performance. Then, a lazy-search based NB-SCL (L-NB-SCL) decoding is proposed to reduce the computational complexity by simplifying the path search pattern of the list decoder. After that, we modify the update of user nodes for SCMA detection to improve the convergence error and finally propose the improved NSD-JIDD (ISD-JIDD) algorithm, which can avoid redundant operations by exploiting L-NB-SCL decoding. Simulation results show that the proposed NB-PC-SCMA system achieves better bit error rate (BER) performance and considerable latency gain when compared to its counterparts. In particular, the proposed ISD-JIDD can achieve similar BER performance of NSD-JIDD with less complexity.

Sparse code multiple access (SCMA) is a promising candidate air interface of next-generation mobile networks. In this paper, we focus on a downlink SCMA system where a transmitter sends confidential messages to multiple users in the presence of external eavesdroppers. Consequently, we develop a novel secure transmission approach over physical layer based on a highly structured SCMA codebook design. In our proposed scheme, we rotate the base constellations (BCs) with random angles by extracting channel phases from the channel state information. By employing randomized constellation rotation, the security of downlink SCMA can be ensured. In addition, a tight SCMA upper bound is introduced to guide the design of the encrypted codebook. As a result, we propose an approach to avoid the significant error rate performance loss caused by using codebooks that are designed using our method. The proposed upper-bound-aided codebook design scheme can select relatively good codebooks with low complexity. By combining SCMA codebook design and secure communication, our scheme ensures security for massive quantities of users with low encrypted and decrypted complexity at the cost of transmission rate and possible error rate performance loss. Moreover, the proposed scheme can achieve robustness against channel estimation errors. Analyses and Monte Carlo simulations confirm the effectiveness of our scheme.

Sparse code multiple access (SCMA) is a promising non-orthogonal multiple access scheme for enabling massive connectivity in next generation wireless networks. However, current SCMA codebooks are designed with the same size, leading to inflexibility of user grouping and supporting diverse data rates. To address this issue, we propose a variable modulation SCMA (VM-SCMA) that allows users to employ codebooks with different modulation orders. To guide the VM-SCMA design, a VM matrix (VMM) that assigns modulation orders based on the SCMA factor graph is first introduced. We formulate the VM-SCMA design using the proposed average inverse product distance and the asymptotic upper bound of sum-rate, and jointly optimize the VMM, VM codebooks, power and codebook allocations. The proposed VM-SCMA not only enables diverse date rates but also supports different modulation order combinations for each rate. Leveraging these distinct advantages, we further propose an adaptive VM-SCMA (AVM-SCMA) scheme which adaptively selects the rate and the corresponding VM codebooks to adapt to the users’ channel conditions by maximizing the proposed effective throughput. Simulation results show that the overall designs are able to simultaneously achieve a high-level system flexibility, enhanced error rate results, and significantly improved throughput performance, when compared to conventional SCMA schemes.

Sparse code multiple access (SCMA) is able to provide high spectral efficiency and massive connectivity, hence it is considered as a promising scheme for the fifth generation (5G) systems. This paper proposed a radio resource allocation scheme based on deep learning for SCMA systems, with the aim to automatically avoid the inter-cell interference. A long short term memory (LSTM) network is adopted to learn the past interference characteristics and predict the interference power in the current subframe. Radio resource blocks with less predicted interference power are then selected for users to transmit signals. Simulation results show that the proposed scheme outperforms the moving average prediction method and has significant gains over the random radio resource block allocation in terms of achievable bit error rate in SCMA systems.

Next-generation wireless networks require higher spectral efficiency and lower latency to meet the demands of various upcoming applications. Recently, non-orthogonal multiple access (NOMA) schemes are introduced in the literature for 5G and beyond. Various forms of NOMA are considered like power domain, code domain, pattern division multiple access, etc. to enhance the spectral efficiency of wireless networks. In this chapter, we introduce the code domain-based sparse code multiple access (SCMA) NOMA scheme to enhance the spectral efficiency of a wireless network. The design and detection of an SCMA system are analyzed in this chapter. Also, the method for codebooks design and its impact on system performance are highlighted. A hybrid multiple access scheme is also introduced using both code-domain and power-domain NOMA. Furthermore, simulation results are included to show the impact of various SCMA system parameters.

Sparse Code Multiple Access (SCMA) is a new air interface technology that is proposed for lower delay, higher capacity and spectrum utilization in 5G communications. The inter-symbol interference(ISI) in wireless communications is serious due to the effects of multipath propagation and background noise. In order to reduce inter-symbol interference, many wireless air interface and radio access technologies adopt cyclic prefixes to obtain channel estimation. However, the spectrum utilization of this method is too low. Considering the blind equalization algorithm is often used in the environment where spectrum resources are scarce, in this paper we adop the blind equalization algorithm in the SCMA technology. In SCMA, the equalization cannot placed on receiver, so we innovatively put the equalization algorithm in the signal transmitter according to the actual situation. In addition, we propose a channel estimation algorithm. Theory and simulation show that applying blind equalization to SCMA can reduce bit error rate and improve spectrum utilization.

Sparse code multiple access (SCMA) is a promising non-orthogonal multiple access (NOMA) scheme for massive machine-type communications for 5G-and-beyond communication systems. Innovative use of orthogonal frequency division multiplexing with index modulation (OFDM-IM) takes advantage of using tone indices in data transmission. In this study, we propose a novel multiplexing and multiple access scheme, namely SCMA based on OFDM-IM (SCMA-IM). SCMA-IM method can be implemented in uplink NOMA systems in an efficient way with similar computational complexity as SCMA. In this method constellation differences and diversity are obtained via SCMA codebooks (CBs) and the employment of CBs is transferred to index modulation (IM). Performance improvement is achieved via CBs so that the number of data bits carried by indices increases more than one bit with different constellations, and also with the number of CBs assigned. In order to determine the indices used in IM, the receiver structure is simplified by the message passing algorithm and log-likelihood ratio detection process used in SCMA receivers without indexing the receiver. Thus, a new NOMA scheme is obtained by coding with IM. Bit error rate performance of the system is studied for 150% and 200% overloading factors.

In this paper we propose a resource allocation algorithm for uplink sparse code multiple access (SCMA) networks to maximize the energy efficiency (EE). Due to the joint optimization of factor graph matrix and power allocation matrix, the EE maximization is a non-convex mixed-integer non-linear programming (MINLP) problem. After transforming the non-convex form of the uplink sum rate to a convex one and separating subcarrier assignment and power allocation, we propose an energy efficient subcarrier assignment algorithm. By applying the fractional programming theory based on the Dinkelbach method, we then propose power allocation algorithm to maximize EE. Finally, the simulation results show that the proposed resource allocation algorithm can significantly increase the EE of the uplink SCMA network.