Cooperative NOMA for Throughput Enhancement of IEEE 802.11 WLANs: Channel Access Design and Performance Analysis

Authors

Keywords:

Cooperative communication, NOMA, CNOMA, Wi-Fi, WLAN

Abstract

In this research work, we propose cooperative non-orthogonal multiple access (CNOMA) based IEEE 802.11 wireless local area network (WLAN) and design a novel channel access scheme for CNOMA based WLAN. The proposed scheme integrates the resource efficiency of NOMA with cooperative relaying technique to enhance the throughput performance. In this scheme, stations (STAs) in the nearer regions act as the relay nodes for the STAs farther from the access point (AP). The novel channel access scheme form clusters by selecting STAs from the various data rate regions and allows nearest region nodes (cluster heads) alone to take part in the contention. This scheme also includes a procedure to select helper nodes from the high data rate regions. Additionally, we present an accurate analytical model for calculating the throughput of CNOMA based WLANs. Analytical and simulation results demonstrate that the proposed approach can significantly enhance the throughput performance of NOMA based WLANs.

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Author Biographies

Harigovindan V P., NIT Puducherry, India

Harigovindan V. P. (Senior Member, IEEE) received the Bachelor of Technology degree in Electronics
and Communication Engineering from University of Calicut, the Master of Technology degree in Digital Electronics and Communication Systems from Visvesvaraya Technological University (with first rank), and the Ph.D. degree from the National Institute of Technology Calicut, in 2013. He is currently working as Professor with the Department of Electronics and Communication Engineering, and Dean (Planning and Development) at National Institute of Technology Puducherry (under the Ministry of Education, Government of India). He has more than 75 international publications to his credit. He served as the Principal Investigator for three funded projects, each from the Department of Science and Technology, Government of India, Science and Engineering Research Board and Microsoft AI for Earth. Presently he is serving as the PI of a project funded by DST- Science for Equity, Empowerment and Development, Govt. of India. He has 7 patents granted to his credit. His research interests include wireless networks, artificial intelligence, Internet of things and wireless communications. 

Jomon K.Charly, National Institute of Technology, Puducherry

Jomon K. Charly received the B.Tech. degree in Electronics and Communication Engineering and the
M.Tech. degree in Communication Systems from the University of Calicut, Kerala, India, in 2013
and 2015, respectively. He is currently pursuing the Ph.D. degree in the Department of Electronics and
Communication, National Institute of Technology Puducherry, India. His research focuses on Wireless
Local Area Networks, NOMA and Compressed sensing. 

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Published

2026-03-14

How to Cite

V P, H., & K.Charly, J. K. (2026). Cooperative NOMA for Throughput Enhancement of IEEE 802.11 WLANs: Channel Access Design and Performance Analysis. IEEE Latin America Transactions, 24(4), 402–411. Retrieved from https://latamt.ieeer9.org/index.php/transactions/article/view/10318

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Section

Electronics