An Analytical Expression for BER Performance of Intelligent Reflecting Surface Assisted NOMA

To improve spectrum and energy efficiency in the fifth generation (5G) wireless channels, intelligent reflecting surface (IRS) transmissions have been envisioned, possibly towards the sixth generation (6G) networks. In this paper, we analyze the bit-error rate (BER) performance of intelligent reflecting surface (IRS) assisted non-orthogonal multiple access (NOMA) systems. First, we derive a closed-form expression of the BER in terms of Q functions. Then we analyze the BER improvement of the IRS NOMA system over the conventional NOMA system with respect to the power allocation. Furthermore, we also demonstrate numerically the BER improvement of the IRS NOMA network over the conventional NOMA network in respect of the number of reflecting devices.