Impulse noise mitigation for MIMO-OFDM wireless networks with linear equalization

This paper considers a multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) orthogonal frequency-division multiplexing (OFDM) wireless network contaminated by Middleton Class A impulsive noise, which is one of the major sources of performance degradation in many wireless systems, including sensor networks. In this scenario, the conventional linear zero-forcing (ZF) equalizer does not perform satisfactorily, since the diversity order does not monotonically increase with the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR). In order to overcome such a problem, we synthesize an improved linear ZF equalizer, which mitigates, in the minimum mean output-energy (MMOE) sense, the impulse noise contribution at the equalizer output. Specifically, the proposed equalizer exploits the fact that the noise samples can be spatially correlated in compact multi-antenna receivers, i.e., when the antenna elements cannot be sufficiently spaced apart due to size constraints. Numerical simulations are performed, aimed at comparing the performances of the proposed ZF-MMOE equalizer with those of competing approaches.