On performance of short-packet ultra-reliable and low-latency communications NOMA MIMO relay networks

This paper proposes and analyzes the performance of a multi-antenna NOMA relay system over the Nakagami-m fading channel, in which the size of signal packets is finite. Based on the application of the Gaussian–Chebyshev quadrature, Riemann integral and incomplete Gamma function, the exact and asymptotic closed-form expressions of the block error rate (BLER), throughput, goodput of the proposed finite block-length multi-antenna NOMA relay system are derived. Moreover, in order to improve the BLER, throughput, and goodput of the proposed system, maximal-ratio combining and maximal-ratio transmission are applied to receivers and transmitters, respectively. The provided analysis and simulation results indicate that the proposed system meets the requirements of ultra-reliable and low-latency communications (URLLC). Especially, the reliability is higher than 99.99, i.e., the BLER is less than 10−4. The accuracy of analysis results is verified by simulation results. Furthermore, the number of transmission bits and power allocation coefficients are optimized to maximize the throughput, and goodput and minimize the BLER. © 2023 Elsevier B.V.