Impulse noise mitigation for OFDM using decision directed noise estimation

The paper describes a new technique for mitigating the effects of impulse noise in OFDM. An estimate is made of the noise component in each received input sample. The estimates are based on the transmitted data. No pilot tones are required. When the estimate is large enough to indicate that impulse noise is present in the sample, the estimated noise component is subtracted from the input sample before final demodulation. Estimates of the noise are obtained from preliminary decisions based on the noisy signal. The technique is effective because the energy from each noise impulse is spread across the received spectrum. The technique can also be applied to multicarrier CDMA. Simulations show that, in cases of practical importance, the symbol error rate can be reduced by several orders of magnitude.