Performance analysis and optimization of OFDM receiver with blanking nonlinearity in impulsive noise environment

A simple method of improving orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) receiver performance in an impulsive noise environment is to precede a conventional OFDM demodulator with blanking nonlinearity. This method is widely used in practice since it is efficient and very simple to implement. However, performance analysis of this scheme has not yet appeared. In this paper, we study performance of the OFDM receiver with blanking nonlinearity in the presence of impulsive noise. Closed form analytical expressions for the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) at the output of blanking nonlinearity and the optimal blanking threshold that maximizes SNR are derived. Simulation results are provided that show good agreement with theory if the number of OFDM subcarriers is sufficiently large.