Exploiting the Direct Link in IRS Assisted NOMA Networks with Hardware Impairments

Hardware impairments(HI)are always present in low-cost wireless devices.This paper investigates the outage behaviors of intelligent reflecting surface(IRS)assisted non-orthogonal multiple access(NOMA)networks by taking into account the impact of HI.Specifically,we derive the approximate and asymptotic expressions of the outage probability for the IRS-NOMA-HI networks.Based on the asymptotic results,the diversity orders under perfect self-interference cancellation and imperfect self-interference cancellation scenarios are obtained to evaluate the performance of the considered network.In addition,the system throughput of IRS-NOMA-HI is discussed in delay-limited mode.The obtained results are provided to verify the accuracy of the theoretical analyses and reveal that:1)The outage performance and system throughput for IRS-NOMA-HI outperforms that of the IRS-assisted orthogonal multiple access-HI(IRS-OMA-HI)networks;2)The number of IRS elements,the pass loss factors,the Rician factors,and the value of HI are pivotal to enhancing the performance of IRS-NOMAHI networks;and 3)It is recommended that effective methods of reducing HI should be used to ensure system performance,in addition to self-interference cancellation techniques.