Rate Compatible Modulation for Non-Orthogonal Multiple Access

We propose a new Non-Orthogonal Multiple Access (NOMA) coding scheme based on the use of a Rate Compatible Modulation (RCM) encoder for each user. By properly designing the encoders and taking advantage of the additive nature of the Multiple Access Channel (MAC), the joint decoder from the inputs of all the users can be represented by a bipartite graph corresponding to a standard point-to-point RCM structure with certain constraints. Decoding is performed over this bipartite graph utilizing the sum-product algorithm. The proposed scheme allows the simultaneous transmission of a large number of uncorrelated users at high rates, while the decoding complexity is the same as that of standard point-to-point RCM schemes. When Rayleigh fast fading channels are considered, the BER vs SNR performance improves as the number of simultaneous users increases, as a result of the averaging effect.