Performance evaluation of NOMA networks powered by harvested energy with antenna selection under $$\kappa -\mu $$ κ - μ shadowed fading

Non-orthogonal multiple access (NOMA) enables the concurrent transmission of numerous user signals, ameliorating spectral efficiency by superimposing these signals. NOMA users utilize energy harvesting to efficiently utilize available energy sources. The energy harvesting process is non-linear in general. Additionally, innumerable antennas are used at the NOMA transmitter and power source to facilitate efficient energy transfer and information transmission with antenna selection (AS). Also, wireless channels cause path loss, fading, and shadowing effects, which directly influence harvested energy and communication reliability. Accordingly, the work assesses the outage performance and throughput of NOMA, examining realistic aspects like non-linear energy harvesting (nlEH), AS, multiple antennas, and $$\kappa -\mu $$ κ - μ shadowed fading. The findings indicate a considerable performance degradation due to nlEH. Moreover, appropriate parameter selection is crucial for preventing complete outages in NOMA networks and achieving optimal performance. In addition, the performance of NOMA networks meliorates with an accreting number of antennas. Furthermore, the AS criterion dramatically impacts performance difference between NOMA users.