Multi-dimensional Space Time Block Coding Aided Downlink MIMO-SCMA

Multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) and sparse code multiple access (SCMA) are two key techniques supporting high spectral efficiency and massive connectivity. In this paper, we consider the downlink MIMO communication scenario where SCMA is used for multiuser access. We aim to improve the performance of the traditional single-input single-output SCMA (SISO-SCMA) by exploiting the transmit diversity of multiple antennas at the transmitter. Specifically, we propose a multi-dimensional space-time block code (MSTBC) aided downlink MIMO-SCMA and derive the design criteria of MSTBC that can achieve full diversity while keep the symbol rate same as the traditional SISO-SCMA system. In particular, the MSTBC-2 for two transmit antennas and the MSTBC-4 for four transmit antennas are designed by extending the Alamouti code and quasi-orthogonal STBC into multi-dimension. Due to the orthogonality/quasi-orthogonality of the two MSTBCs, a linear decoder is available at the receiver, which keeps the complexity of the proposed MSTBC aided MIMO-SCMA almost the same as the conventional SISO-SCMA. Furthermore, the performance of the proposed schemes is evaluated based on both Monte Carlo simulations and analytical results. Simulation results show that the proposed MSTBC aided MIMO-SCMA can significantly outperform the conventional SISO-SCMA, STBC-MIMO-OFDM, and multiplexing MIMO-SCMA schemes.