A UAV-Assisted STAR-RIS Network with a NOMA System

Jiyin Lan, Yuyang Peng (), Mohammad Meraj Mirza and Fawaz AL-Hazemi
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Jiyin Lan: School of Computer Science and Engineering, Macau University of Science and Technology, Macau 999078, China
Yuyang Peng: School of Computer Science and Engineering, Macau University of Science and Technology, Macau 999078, China
Mohammad Meraj Mirza: Department of Computer Science, College of Computers and Information Technology, Taif University, Taif 21944, Saudi Arabia
Fawaz AL-Hazemi: Department of Computer and Network Engineering, University of Jeddah, Jeddah 21959, Saudi Arabia

Mathematics, 2025, vol. 13, issue 13, 1-15

Abstract: In this paper, we investigate a simultaneous transmitting and reflecting reconfigurable intelligent surface (STAR-RIS)-assisted non-orthogonal multiple access (NOMA) communication system where the STAR-RIS is mounted on an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) with adjustable altitude. Due to severe blockages in urban environments, direct links from the base station (BS) to users are assumed unavailable, and signal transmission is realized via the STAR-RIS. We formulate a joint optimization problem that maximizes the system sum rate by jointly optimizing the UAV’s altitude, BS beamforming vectors, and the STAR-RIS phase shifts, while considering Rician fading channels with altitude-dependent Rician factors. To tackle the maximum achievable rate problem, we adopt a block-wise optimization framework and employ semidefinite relaxation and gradient descent methods. Simulation results show that the proposed scheme achieves up to 22% improvement in achievable rate and significant reduction in bit error rate (BER) compared to benchmark schemes, demonstrating its effectiveness in integrating STAR-RIS and UAV in NOMA networks.

Keywords: reconfigurable intelligent surfaces; non-orthogonal multiple access; unmanned aerial vehicle (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
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