Capacity Enhancement of Near-Shore Communication Using Rate Splitting Multiple Access

With the increasing importance of maritime activities, the demand for high-capacity, high-data-rate, and reliable coastal communication systems has increased dramatically. Near-shore environments that support offshore operations, such as wind and oil platforms, fisheries, and smart ports, require robust communication solutions to handle growing data demands. However, maritime environments present unique challenges, including multipath fading, shadowing, and interference caused by vessel movements and unpredictable sea conditions. To overcome these obstacles, this paper investigates the use of Rate-Splitting Multiple Access (RSMA) to enhance the capacity and data rate of near-shore communication networks. RSMA introduces a flexible approach to interference management by splitting user messages into common and private streams, enabling more efficient handling of interference and improving overall network performance. Our simulation results reveal that the RSMA significantly outperforms Non-Orthogonal Multiple Access (NOMA), achieving up to 9 bps/Hz higher sum-rate performance and offering superior adaptability to dynamic channel variations in a maritime environment. These findings highlight RSMA’s potential as an effective solution for the next generation of near-shore maritime communication systems.