Performance improvement of non-orthogonal multiple access with a 3D constellation and a 2D IFFT modulator

In this paper, we propose a performance improvement of non-orthogonal multiple access (NOMA) with a three-dimensional (3D) constellation and a two-dimensional Inverse Fast Fourier Transform IFFT modulator (2D-IFFT) for the passive optical network (PON). Two kinds of 3D constellation mapping are designed for the generation of a three-dimensional NOMA (3D-NOMA) signal. Higher-order 3D modulation signals can be obtained by superimposing signals of different power levels by pair mapping. Successive interference cancellation (SIC) algorithm is implemented at the receiver to remove interference from different users. Compared with the traditional two-dimensional NOMA (2D-NOMA), the proposed 3D-NOMA can increase the minimum Euclidean distance (MED) of constellation points by 15.48%, which enhances the bit error rate (BER) performance of the NOMA. The peak-to-average power ratio (PAPR) of NOMA can be reduced by 2 dB. A 12.17 Gb/s 3D-NOMA transmission over 25 km single-mode fiber (SMF) is experimentally demonstrated. The results show that at the bit error rate (BER) of 3.8 × 10^-3, the sensitivity gain of the high-power signals of the two proposed 3D-NOMA schemes is 0.7 dB and 1 dB compared with that of 2D-NOMA under the condition of the same rate. Low-power level signal also has 0.3 dB and 1 dB performance improvement. Compared with 3D orthogonal frequency-division multiplexing (3D-OFDM), the proposed 3D-NOMA scheme could potentially expand the number of users without obvious performance degradation. Due to its good performance, 3D-NOMA is a potential method for future optical access systems.