A Tutorial on Decoding Techniques of Sparse Code Multiple Access

Sparse Code Multiple Access (SCMA) is a disruptive code-domain non-orthogonal multiple access (NOMA) scheme to enable future massive machine-type communication networks. As an evolved variant of code division multiple access (CDMA), multiple users in SCMA are separated by assigning distinctive sparse codebooks (CBs). Efficient multiuser detection is carried out at the receiver by employing the message passing algorithm (MPA) that exploits the sparsity of CBs to achieve error performance approaching to that of the maximum likelihood receiver. In spite of numerous research efforts in recent years, a comprehensive one-stop tutorial of SCMA covering the background, the basic principles, and new advances, is still missing, to the best of our knowledge. To fill this gap and to stimulate more forthcoming research, we provide a holistic introduction to the principles of SCMA encoding, CB design, and MPA based decoding in a self-contained manner. As an ambitious paper aiming to push the limits of SCMA, we present a survey of advanced decoding techniques with brief algorithmic descriptions as well as several promising directions

Toward High-Performance Implementation of 5G SCMA Algorithms

International audienceThe recent evolution of mobile communication systems toward a 5G network is associated with the search for new types of non-orthogonal modulations such as Sparse Code Multiple Access (SCMA). Such modulations are proposed in response to demands for increasing the number of connected users. SCMA is a non-orthogonal multiple access technique that offers improved Bit Error Rate (BER) performance and higher spectral efficiency than other comparable techniques, but these improvements come at the cost of complex decoders. There are many challenges in designing near-optimum high throughput SCMA decoders. This paper explores means to enhance the performance of SCMA decoders. To achieve this goal, various improvements to the MPA algorithms are proposed. They notably aim at adapting SCMA decoding to the Single Instruction Multiple Data (SIMD) paradigm. An approximate modeling of noise is performed to reduce the complexity of floating-point calculations. The effects of Forward Error Corrections (FEC) such as polar, turbo and LDPC codes, as well as different ways of accessing memory and improving power efficiency of modified MPAs are investigated. The results show that the throughput of a SCMA decoder can be increased by 3.1 to 21 times when compared to the original MPA on different computing platforms using the suggested improvements