Sparse code multiple access: An energy efficient uplink approach for 5G wireless systems

The rapid traffic growth and ubiquitous access requirements make it essential to explore the next generation (5G) wireless communication networks. In the current 5G research area, non-orthogonal multiple access has been proposed as a paradigm shift of physical layer technologies. Among all the existing non-orthogonal technologies, the recently proposed sparse code multiple access (SCMA) scheme is shown to achieve a better link level performance. In this paper, we extend the study by proposing an unified framework to analyze the energy efficiency of SCMA scheme and a low complexity decoding algorithm which is critical for prototyping. We show through simulation and prototype measurement results that SCMA scheme provides extra multiple access capability with reasonable complexity and energy consumption, and hence, can be regarded as an energy efficient approach for 5G wireless communication systems.