Performance Analyses of MRT/MRC in Dual-Hop NOMA Full-Duplex AF Relay Networks with Residual Hardware Impairments

Abstract: This paper analyzes the performance of maximum-ratio transmission (MRT)/maximum-ratio combining (MRC) scheme in a dual-hop non-orthogonal multiple access (NOMA) full-duplex (FD) relay networks in the presence of residual hardware impairments (RHIs). The effects of channel estimation errors (CEEs) and imperfect successive interference cancellation are also considered for a realistic performance analysis. In the network, the base station and multiple users utilize MRT and MRC, respectively, while a dedicated relay consisting of two antennas, one for receiving and the other for broadcasting, operates in amplify-and-forward mode. For performance criterion, exact outage probability (OP) expression is derived for Nakagami-m fading channels. Furthermore, a tight lower bound and asymptotic expressions are also derived to provide more insights into the obtained OP in terms of diversity order and array gain. The obtained numerical results demonstrate the importance of loop-interference cancellation process at FD relay in order for the investigated system to perform better than half-duplex-NOMA counterpart. Also, a performance trade-off between the MRT and MRC schemes is observed in the presence of CEEs among users. Furthermore, it is shown that RHIs have a significant effect on the performance of users with lower power coefficients, however it does not change the diversity order. RHIs and CEEs have the most and least deterioration effects on the system performance, respectively.