Analysis of throughput and error rate of 16-QAM, 64-QAM, and 256-QAM O-NOMA waveforms

Abstract This study presents a comprehensive analysis of the throughput performance, spectrum efficiency, and block error rate (BLER) of optical non-orthogonal multiple access (O-NOMA) waveforms using 16-quadrature amplitude modulation (QAM), 64-QAM, and 256-QAM modulation schemes. The aim is to assess the trade-offs between data rate, spectral efficiency, and error performance in O-NOMA systems. The analysis reveals that higher-order modulations, such as 64-QAM and 256-QAM, offer higher data rates and improved spectrum efficiency compared to 16-QAM. Furthermore, the study investigates the spectrum performance of the O-NOMA waveforms. The results indicate that higher-order modulations may utilise the spectrum more efficiently, maximising the data throughput within the available bandwidth. Moreover, the BLER analysis provides insights into the error performance of the O-NOMA waveforms. It quantifies the probability of errors occurring in a block of transmitted data and evaluates the system’s reliability. The analysis reveals that 256-QAM O-NOMA achieves lower BLER and high throughput in uplink and downlink as compared with the 16 and 64-QAM O-NOMA frameworks.