Average Secure BLER Analysis of NOMA Downlink Short-Packet Communication Systems in Flat Rayleigh Fading Channels

Incorporating short-packet communications with non-orthogonal multiple access (NOMA) networks is able to achieve both low communication delay and high spectral efficiency. In this article, a wireless NOMA downlink short-packet communication system is studied. The system includes a base station, an entrusted central user, and an untrusted cell-edge user. The untrusted cell-edge user may eavesdrop the signals from the base station to the central user. We theoretically derive the average secure block error rate (BLER) of the central user in flat Rayleigh fading channels by utilizing the linear approximations on BLER and secure BLER. We also present the asymptotic average secure BLER at high signal-to-noise ratio (SNR). From numerical results, it is shown that our derived analytical average secure BLER matches the simulated one. Numerical results also illustrate that at high SNR, error floors occur. Furthermore, at high SNR, it is found that when the average secure BLER is not one, the power allocation factors for the central and cell-edge users have almost no impact on the average secure BLER.