On the BLER performance of UAV-assisted dual-hop V2V MIMO-NOMA systems in finite blocklength regime

Abstract

This paper investigates the block error rate (BLER) performance of a Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV)-assisted Multiple-Input Multiple-Output (MIMO) Non-Orthogonal Multiple Access (NOMA) Vehicle-to-Vehicle (V2V) communication system operating in the finite blocklength (FBL) regime over double Rayleigh fading channels. The system model incorporates 3D UAV geometry, Maximum Ratio Transmission (MRT)/Maximum Ratio Combining (MRC) beamforming, and NOMA with successive interference cancellation (SIC). Due to the analytical complexity under MIMO and FBL conditions, a single-link approximation, linearized Q-function, and Meijer G-function are used to derive closed-form and asymptotic expressions for the end-to-end BLER. The analysis captures the effects of key system parameters, including blocklength, signal-to-noise ratio, power allocation, and SIC efficiency. Additionally, the impact of UAV altitude and vehicle velocity on reliability is quantified, revealing trade-offs between line-of-sight probability, path loss, and time correlation. Asymptotic analysis provides insights into diversity order, aiding the design of robust UAV-assisted ultra-reliable low-latency communication (URLLC) systems under mobility and short-packet constraints.