Secrecy performance analysis for a NOMA based FSO-RF system with imperfect CSI

In this paper, we consider a non-orthogonal multiple access (NOMA) based mixed free space optical–radio frequency (FSO-RF) system with imperfect channel state information (CSI) and evaluate the secrecy performance in terms of secrecy outage probability (SOP). Specifically, a source ( S ) first forwards an optical NOMA signal to a relay ( R ) via an FSO link, and then R performs an optical–electrical conversion and broadcasts the converted signal to users over the RF links. Both the FSO and RF links are incorporated with the NOMA technique, and the CSI imperfection in both links is considered. Assuming both users have multiple antennas, and adopting the maximal ratio combining diversity schemes, we derive the analytical and asymptotic expressions for SOP when the FSO link undergoes gamma–gamma fading with pointing error and the RF links are subject to Rayleigh fading. In addition, both decode-and-forward and amplify-and-forward protocols are taken into account and compared. Monte Carlo simulations are also used to verify the accuracy of the derived results.