Time‐domain equalizer for multicarrier systems in impulsive noise

In multicarrier communication systems, a time‐domain equalizer (TEQ) can be applied to shorten the channel impulse response and to eliminate inter‐symbol interference (ISI). However, the presence of impulsive noise in the channel may paralyze the operation of TEQs and subsequently lead to poor error performance. In this paper, a multicarrier receiver that incorporates a constant false alarm rate algorithm and an iterative estimation technique (CFAR‐IET) in conjunction with a TEQ is proposed to increase the robustness of the receiver against impulsive noise. Furthermore, an improved version of the CFAR‐IET‐TEQ scheme, which uses the buffering, sorting, removing and amplitude averaging (BSRA) processes, is presented. Performance comparisons of the proposed schemes with the existing Gaussian‐optimized schemes are made. Simulation results show that the BSRA‐IET‐TEQ scheme is an effective approach to reduce symbol error rate (SER) in impulsive channels while performing satisfactorily in Gaussian channels. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.