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IEEE Transactions on Communications

Non-Orthogonal Multiple-Access for Coherent-State Optical Quantum Communications Under Lossy Photon Channels

Zhichao Dong, Xiaolin Zhou, Yongkang Chen, Wei Ni, Ekram Hossain, X. Wang

Published Dec 22, 2025• 0 citations
Publisher

Abstract

Coherent states have been increasingly considered in optical quantum communications (OQCs).With the inherent non-orthogonality of coherent states, non-orthogonal multiple-access (NOMA) naturally lends itself to the implementation of multi-user OQC. However, this remains unexplored in the literature. This paper proposes a novel successive interference cancellation (SIC)-based photon-number-resolving detection (PNRD)-Kennedy receiver for uplink NOMA-OQC systems, along with a new approach for power allocation of the coherent states emitted by users. The key idea is to rigorously derive the asymptotic sum-rate of the considered systems, taking into account the impact of atmospheric turbulence, background noise, and lossy photon channel. With the asymptotic sum-rate, we optimize the average number of photons (or powers) of the coherent states emitted by the users. Variable substitution and successive convex approximation (SCA) are employed to convexify and maximize the asymptotic sum-rate iteratively. A new coherent-state power allocation algorithm is developed for a small-to-medium number of users. We further develop its low-complexity variant using adaptive importance sampling, which is suitable for scenarios with a medium-to-large number of users. Simulations demonstrate that our algorithms significantly enhance the sum-rate of uplink NOMA-OQC systems using coherent states by over 20%, compared to their alternatives.

DOI
10.1109/tcomm.2025.3646885

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Coherent states have been increasingly considered in optical quantum communications (OQCs).With the inherent non-orthogonality of coherent states, non-orthogonal multiple-access (NOMA) naturally lends itself to the implementation of multi-user OQC. However, this remains unexplored in the literature. This paper proposes a novel successive interference cancellation (SIC)-based photon-number-resolving detection (PNRD)-Kennedy receiver for uplink NOMA-OQC systems, along with a new approach for power allocation of the coherent states emitted by users. The key idea is to rigorously derive the asymptotic sum-rate of the considered systems, taking into account the impact of atmospheric turbulence, background noise, and lossy photon channel. With the asymptotic sum-rate, we optimize the average number of photons (or powers) of the coherent states emitted by the users. Variable substitution and successive convex approximation (SCA) are employed to convexify and maximize the asymptotic sum-rate iteratively. A new coherent-state power allocation algorithm is developed for a small-to-medium number of users. We further develop its low-complexity variant using adaptive importance sampling, which is suitable for scenarios with a medium-to-large number of users. Simulations demonstrate that our algorithms significantly enhance the sum-rate of uplink NOMA-OQC systems using coherent states by over 20%, compared to their alternatives.
Coherent states have been increasingly considered in optical quantum communications (OQCs). With the inherent non-orthogonality of coherent states, non-orthogonal multiple-access (NOMA) naturally lends itself to the implementation of multi-user OQC. However, this remains unexplored in the literature. This paper proposes a novel successive interference cancellation (SIC)-based Kennedy receiver for uplink NOMA-OQC systems, along with a new approach for power allocation of the coherent states emitted by users. The key idea is to rigorously derive the asymptotic sum-rate of the considered systems, taking into account the impact of atmospheric turbulence, background noise, and lossy photon channel. With the asymptotic sum-rate, we optimize the average number of photons (or powers) of the coherent states emitted by the users. Variable substitution and successive convex approximation (SCA) are employed to convexify and maximize the asymptotic sum-rate iteratively. A new coherent-state power allocation algorithm is developed for a small-to-medium number of users. We further develop its low-complexity variant using adaptive importance sampling, which is suitable for scenarios with a medium-to-large number of users. Simulations demonstrate that our algorithms significantly enhance the sum-rate of uplink NOMA-OQC systems using coherent states by over 20\%, compared to their alternatives.
We address the multi-user quantum key distribution (QKD) problem under malicious quantum attacks, which is critical for realizing a large-scale quantum Internet. This paper maximizes the sum secret key rate (SKR) of a novel uplink non-orthogonal multiple access based continuous-variable QKD (NOMA-CVQKD) system under collective attacks. The proposed system uses Gaussian-modulated coherent states and a quantum successive interference cancellation based heterodyne receiver. We derive closed-form asymptotic bounds for the legitimate users' achievable key rates via the entropy power inequality and maximum entropy principle, as well as for the eavesdropper's intercepted information based on Holevo information. A successive convex approximation based power allocation algorithm is developed to maximize the asymptotic sum SKR of the NOMA-CVQKD system under collective attacks, with guaranteed convergence to a locally optimal Karush-Kuhn-Tucker solution. Simulation results show that the proposed NOMA-CVQKD system with the power allocation algorithm achieves up to 23% higher sum SKR than quantum-orthogonal multiple access, supports 16 users at excess noise variance 0.1, and remains robust under varying turbulence intensities and transmission distances.
Quantum wireless communications (QWC) is gaining much attention for its incomparable advantages of secure key transmission in free-space scenarios. In this paper, a novel iterative multi-user quantum key distribution (MQKD) non-orthogonal multiple-access (NOMA) system over Poisson atmospheric channels is proposed. Considering the atmospheric attenuation and quantum direct product operation, a MQKD parallel interference cancellation (PIC) approach is designed at the receiver. In particular, a quantum nonlinear Poisson shot noise limited sum-product interference cancellation algorithm is derived. Simulation results show that the proposed scheme is capable of mitigating the multi-user interference effectively, even considering the polarization mismatch. Quantitatively, for the 4-user scenario, it can achieve the classical Bit Error Rate (BER) of 3 x 10-6 at 2.5 km distance with polarization mismatch factor of 0.05. Moreover, the proposed NOMA-MQKD scheme can have obviously higher secure key rate than the conventional WDMA-MQKD approach.
In this paper, we propose a novel uplink Hybrid Non-Orthogonal Multiple Access (NOMA) architecture assisted by Rydberg Atomic Quantum Receivers (RAQRs) to improve energy efficiency by addressing the physical constraints of atomic sensing. We formulate a joint optimization problem encompassing phase measurements and multi-user power allocation to minimize the total transmit power. This problem is particularly challenging due to the non-linear amplitude-only observations of atomic vapor cells. To decomposes the resulting non-convexity, we develop a hierarchical three-layer decomposition optimization framework that systematically decouples the global problem. The inner layer employs a customized Expectation Maximization-Gerchberg-Saxton (EM-GS) algorithm to resolve phase ambiguity and estimate equivalent channel gains. The middle layer derives closed-form optimal power allocation solutions via Karush-Kuhn-Tucker (KKT) conditions. The outer layer utilizes linear Minimum Mean Square Error (MMSE) detection for high-reliability signal recovery. Simulation results demonstrate the superiority of the proposed framework over conventional RF-based Hybrid NOMA. Notably, the atomic architecture achieves approximately a 93% reduction in total power consumption compared to Orthogonal Multiple Access (OMA) baselines while maintaining strict backward compatibility, thereby laying a solid foundation for practical deployment in next-generation green communication networks.
The amalgamation of non-orthogonal multiple access (NOMA) and physical layer security is a significant research interest for providing spectrally-efficient secure fifth-generation networks. Observing the secrecy issue among multiplexed NOMA users, which is stemmed from successive interference cancellation based decoding at receivers, we focus on safeguarding untrusted NOMA. Considering the problem of each user’s privacy from each other, the appropriate secure decoding order and power allocation (PA) for users are investigated. Specifically, a decoding order strategy is proposed which is efficient in providing positive secrecy at all NOMA users. An algorithm is also provided through which all the feasible secure decoding orders in accordance with the proposed decoding order strategy can be obtained. Further, in order to maximize the sum secrecy rate of the system, the joint solution of decoding order and PA is obtained numerically. Also, a sub-optimal decoding order solution is proposed. Lastly, numerical results present useful insights on the impact of key system parameters and demonstrate that average secrecy rate performance gain of about 27 dB is obtained by the jointly optimized solution over different relevant schemes.
Non-orthogonal multiple access (NOMA) comprises a prospective technology in the 5th generation (5G) and future wireless communications. In this paper, due to intrinsic nonorthogonal properties of coherent state multi-user communications, a new iterative quantum spatial coupling NOMA (q-SC-NOMA) scheme is proposed. The simulation results confirm that, compared to the recent reported multi-stage displacement based receiver (MDR), the q-SC-NOMA scheme is capable of achieving obviously better performance, saving about 3dB mean signal power in 3-user scenario. Moreover, the q-SC-NOMA scheme can obtain the lower bit error rate (BER) than the non-spatial-coupled quantum NOMA (q-NOMA) approach with reduced computational complexity. In particular, the q-SC-NOMA also offers high robustness against many practical quantum domain imperfections, e.g. mode mismatch and dark counts, etc.