An Improved Functional Link Architecture for Nonlinear AEC

In practice, hands-free devices commonly employ low-cost electronic components. Unfortunately, the nonlinear distortion arising from them affects the performance of acoustic echo cancellers. To address this issue, this paper proposes a new adaptive filtering algorithm based on nonlinear acoustic echo cancellation (NAEC) framework for improving its echo cancellation performance. The advanced method employs a novel combination of an adaptive filter based on sub-filter and proportionate adaptation, and presents an enhanced NAEC framework. In addition to that, both convergence and steady-state analysis of the proposed NAEC algorithm are presented. The performance evaluation made in the presence of speech and colored noise inputs has shown an average improvement of 3–4 dB compared to the existing algorithms.