ABSTRACTFor the next‐generation communication systems, to improve spectral efficiency and increase the data rate, new multiple access techniques have been investigated. Orthogonal multiple access techniques are widely used in traditional communication systems while nonorthogonal multiple access (NOMA), proposed in 5G, has been a promising technology for satisfying the demand for future wireless communication networks. Sparse code multiple access (SCMA) is a code‐domain NOMA method that provides diversity gain with signal constellation coding. However, to increase the performance of SCMA, there are only limited works provided in the literature in terms of codebook design and receiver design. In this paper, a new multiple‐access model is proposed by applying various diversity techniques for downlink SCMA. The performance of the proposed model is evaluated with both computer simulations and theoretical analysis. Results show that the proposed model provides a 1.6 dB gain in terms of the bit error rate (BER) under the Rayleigh fading channel.