LAP-Based FSO-RF Cooperative NOMA Systems

In this work, we study a low altitude platform (LAP)-aided dual-hop relaying system combined with non-orthogonal multiple access (NOMA) and free-space optical (FSO) communication technology. More specifically, we assume that a LAP is served as a relay with decode-and-forward (DF) protocol, where the link between the source and the relay is assumed to adopt the FSO scheme, and the links between the relay and the two NOMA users are supposed to be radio frequency (RF). Based on this system model, we analyze the outage probability. To obtain the diversity order information, we also develop the asymptotic analysis. Our results show that the altitude of the LAP affects the system performance significantly. In addition, the system’s performance is dependent on the parameters of the FSO channel.