Abstract

Integrated Sensing and Communication (ISAC) is a key enabler for Sixth-Generation (6G) and future wireless networks, which seamlessly combines ambient sensing with data communication. In this paper, we propose a novel ISAC-enabled Non-Orthogonal Multiple Access (NOMA) scheme named ISAC-Space-Time Block Coding (STBC) NOMA. We present a thorough performance comparison of our proposed scheme against three previously studied ISAC-NOMA variants: Conventional ISAC-NOMA, ISAC-Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) NOMA, and ISAC-Generalized Space Shift Keying (GSSK) NOMA, in a multi-user scenario. The comparison specifically focuses on three critical performance metrics: spectral efficiency, Bit Error Rate (BER), and Successive Interference Cancellation (SIC) decoding complexity. The evaluation results show that ISAC-STBC NOMA consistently outperforms the other schemes across all metrics. Specifically, ISAC-STBC NOMA achieves approximately 24% higher spectral efficiency at 30 dB Signal-to-Noise Ratio (SNR), reduces the BER by approximately 30%, and lowers SIC decoding complexity by up to 25%. These findings position ISAC-STBC NOMA as a strong candidate for next-generation networks, offering a well-balanced solution that enhances communication robustness, spectrum utilization, and computational efficiency.

Citation

Anindya Bal, Haofan Cai, Hanqing Guo, Yao Zheng, Xiaoxue Zhang, “Enabling Joint Sensing and Communication via STBC Assisted NOMA in ISAC Systems,” 2025 IEEE International Conference on Mobile Ad-Hoc and Smart Systems (MASS), 2025, pp. 407–414. doi: 10.1109/MASS66014.2025.00064.

Download BibTeX citation · DOI: 10.1109/MASS66014.2025.00064