Asynchronous Scrambled Coded Multiple Access for 5G Non-Orthogonal Multiple Access: System Level Performance

Asynchronous Scrambled Coded Multiple Access (ASCMA) technology presents several features that make it well suited for IoT and mMTC type applications over state-of-the-art terrestrial wireless networks. These include low-rate error correction coding combined with low complexity receiver processing and an ability to transmit data asynchronously using single as well as multiple-streams from a user terminal. The resulting advantages in terms of spectral efficiency, low-latency, and reduced power consumption have been quantified previously using link-level simulations. In this paper, we evaluate the system level performance of a 5G New Radio (NR) mobile network employing ASCMA for uplink mMTC type applications. Using an accurate system level simulator, we evaluate two different scheduling schemes for ASCMA, the first assumes a grant-based scheduling of user terminals over available network resources and the second assumes random access or grant-free scheduling of the same. A novel abstraction method is developed to aid the system level evaluations. Using extensive simulations, we demonstrate the ability of ASCMA technology to provide significant improvements to key network performance indicators such as packet loss rate, average retransmission rate, average cell throughput and cell-edge throughput.