Performance Analysis of Uplink Sparse Code Multiple Access in Rician Fading

This paper investigates the error performance of uplink sparse code multiple access (SCMA) over Rician fading channels, with the assumption of joint maximum likelihood multiuser detection. We provide an expression for the pairwise-error probability of SCMA codewords, for multiuser signaling in the presence of additive white Gaussian noise and independent Rician fadings. Based on the derived codeword pairwise-error probability, a tight upper bound on the average codeword error probability is then developed by using multiuser union bound estimation, which gives an accurate evaluation of the error performance of uplink SCMA. Simulations are carried out for different Rician channel scenarios, to verify the effectiveness of the analysis.