Error Performance of a NOMA‐Based Satellite Communication System

ABSTRACT The paper analyzes the error performance of a basic satellite‐terrestrial communication system, which uses a satellite as a source and receiver at the earth station as a destination. The system model accounts for an independent channel of fading and applies the theory of non‐orthogonal multiple access (NOMA) to provide fair resource sharing and better connectivity among multiple users. The paper investigates the transmission characteristics and derives the expressions for the total symbol error rate (SER) of the proposed system model. Furthermore, it examines the transmission efficiency with the help of the elevation angle between the source and the destination. The paper also explores the impact of different fading environments on SER.