On Multiplicative Transfer Function Approximation in the Short-Time Fourier Transform Domain

The multiplicative transfer function (MTF) approximation is widely used for modeling a linear time invariant system in the short-time Fourier transform (STFT) domain. It relies on the assumption of a long analysis window compared with the length of the system impulse response. In this paper, we investigate the influence of the analysis window length on the performance of a system identifier that utilizes the MTF approximation. We derive analytic expressions for the minimum mean-square error (MMSE) in the STFT domain and show that the system identification performance does not necessarily improve by increasing the length of the analysis window. The optimal window length, that achieves the MMSE, depends on the signal-to-noise ratio and the length of the input signal. The theoretical analysis is supported by simulation results