Performance of Linear Detectors in Uplink NOMA Massive MIMO System
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.46610/ARCEI.2026.v03i02.002Keywords:
Bit error rate, Cooperative NOMA, Linear detectors, Massive MIMO, Rayleigh fading, SC-FDMA, Spectral efficiencyAbstract
The rapid growth of connected devices and data-intensive applications has created significant challenges for future wireless communication systems in terms of spectral efficiency, connectivity, and transmission reliability. To address these requirements, this work investigates an uplink Cooperative Non-Orthogonal Multiple Access (NOMA) framework combined with Massive Multiple Input Multiple Output (Massive MIMO) and Single Carrier Frequency Division Multiple Access (SC-FDMA) techniques. The proposed system enables multiple users to share identical radio resources through power domain multiplexing while employing cooperative relaying to improve the communication quality of users experiencing unfavourable channel conditions. SC-FDMA is incorporated as the uplink transmission scheme to achieve reduced peak-to-average power ratio and enhanced power efficiency. The system performance is evaluated over Rayleigh fading channels using MATLAB simulations. A comparative analysis of linear detection techniques, namely Maximum Ratio Combining (MRC), Zero Forcing (ZF), and Minimum Mean Square Error (MMSE), is carried out based on Bit Error Rate (BER) performance under different signal-to-noise ratio levels and antenna configurations. Simulation results indicate that increasing the number of base station antennas substantially enhances detection performance by providing improved spatial diversity and interference suppression. Among the considered detectors, MMSE demonstrates superior BER performance, particularly in moderate and low SNR regions. The integration of Cooperative NOMA, Massive MIMO, and SC FDMA provides a robust uplink transmission framework capable of improving reliability, spectral utilization, and energy efficiency, making it a promising candidate for next-generation and beyond 5G wireless communication networks.
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