Sparseness-controlled adaptive algorithms for supervised and unsupervised system identification

In single-channel hands-free telephony, the acoustic coupling between the loudspeaker and the microphone can be strong and this generates echoes that can degrade user experience. Therefore, effective acoustic echo cancellation (AEC) is necessary to maintain a stable system and hence improve the perceived voice quality of a call. Traditionally, adaptive filters have been deployed in acoustic echo cancellers to estimate the acoustic impulse responses (AIRs) using adaptive algorithms. The performances of a range of well-known algorithms are studied in the context of both AEC and network echo cancellation (NEC). It presents insights into their tracking performances under both time-invariant and time-varying system conditions. In the context of AEC, the level of sparseness in AIRs can vary greatly in a mobile environment. When the response is strongly sparse, convergence of conventional approaches is poor. Drawing on techniques originally developed for NEC, a class of time-domain and a frequency-domain AEC algorithms are proposed that can not only work well in both sparse and dispersive circumstances, but also adapt dynamically to the level of sparseness using a new sparseness-controlled approach. As it will be shown later that the early part of the acoustic echo path is sparse while the late reverberant part of the acoustic path is dispersive, a novel approach to an adaptive filter structure that consists of two time-domain partition blocks is proposed such that different adaptive algorithms can be used for each part. By properly controlling the mixing parameter for the partitioned blocks separately, where the block lengths are controlled adaptively, the proposed partitioned block algorithm works well in both sparse and dispersive time-varying circumstances. A new insight into an analysis on the tracking performance of improved proportionate NLMS (IPNLMS) is presented by deriving the expression for the mean-square error. By employing the framework for both sparse and dispersive time-varying echo paths, this work validates the analytic results in practical simulations for AEC. The time-domain second-order statistic based blind SIMO identification algorithms, which exploit the cross relation method, are investigated and then a technique with proportionate step-size control for both sparse and dispersive system identification is also developed

Adaptive filters for sparse system identification

Sparse system identification has attracted much attention in the field of adaptive algorithms, and the adaptive filters for sparse system identification are studied. Firstly, a new family of proportionate normalized least mean square (PNLMS) adaptive algorithms that improve the performance of identifying block-sparse systems is proposed. The main proposed algorithm, called block-sparse PNLMS (BS-PNLMS), is based on the optimization of a mixed ℓ2,1 norm of the adaptive filter\u27s coefficients. A block-sparse improved PNLMS (BS-IPNLMS) is also derived for both sparse and dispersive impulse responses. Meanwhile, the proposed block-sparse proportionate idea has been extended to both the proportionate affine projection algorithm (PAPA) and the proportionate affine projection sign algorithm (PAPSA). Secondly, a generalized scheme for a family of proportionate algorithms is also presented based on convex optimization. Then a novel low-complexity reweighted PAPA is derived from this generalized scheme which could achieve both better performance and lower complexity than previous ones. The sparseness of the channel is taken into account to improve the performance for dispersive system identification. Meanwhile, the memory of the filter\u27s coefficients is combined with row action projections (RAP) to significantly reduce the computational complexity. Finally, two variable step-size zero-point attracting projection (VSS-ZAP) algorithms for sparse system identification are proposed. The proposed VSS-ZAPs are based on the approximations of the difference between the sparseness measure of current filter coefficients and the real channel, which could gain lower steady-state misalignment and also track the change in the sparse system --Abstract, page iv

Stochastic analysis of an error power ratio scheme applied to the affine combination of two LMS adaptive filters

The affine combination of two adaptive filters that simultaneously adapt on the same inputs has been actively investigated. In these structures, the filter outputs are linearly combined to yield a performance that is better than that of either filter. Various decision rules can be used to determine the time-varying parameter for combining the filter outputs. A recently proposed scheme based on the ratio of error powers of the two filters has been shown by simulation to achieve nearly optimum performance. The purpose of this paper is to present a first analysis of the statistical behavior of this error power scheme for white Gaussian inputs. Expressions are derived for the mean behavior of the combination parameter and for the adaptive weight mean-square deviation. Monte Carlo simulations show good to excellent agreement with the theoretical predictions

ZA-APA with Adaptive Zero Attractor Controller for Variable Sparsity Environment

The zero attraction affine projection algorithm (ZA-APA) achieves better performance in terms of convergence rate and steady state error than standard APA when the system is sparse. It uses l1 norm penalty to exploit sparsity of the channel. The performance of ZA-APA depends on the value of zero attractor controller. Moreover a fixed attractor controller is not suitable for varying sparsity environment. This paper proposes an optimal adaptive zero attractor controller based on Mean Square Deviation (MSD) error to work in variable sparsity environment. Experiments were conducted to prove the suitability of the proposed algorithm for identification of unknown variable sparse system

An affine combination of two LMS adaptive filters - Transient mean-square analysis

This paper studies the statistical behavior of an affine combination of the outputs of two LMS adaptive filters that simultaneously adapt using the same white Gaussian inputs. The purpose of the combination is to obtain an LMS adaptive filter with fast convergence and small steady-state mean-square deviation (MSD). The linear combination studied is a generalization of the convex combination, in which the combination factor $\lambda(n)$ is restricted to the interval $(0,1)$. The viewpoint is taken that each of the two filters produces dependent estimates of the unknown channel. Thus, there exists a sequence of optimal affine combining coefficients which minimizes the MSE. First, the optimal unrealizable affine combiner is studied and provides the best possible performance for this class. Then two new schemes are proposed for practical applications. The mean-square performances are analyzed and validated by Monte Carlo simulations. With proper design, the two practical schemes yield an overall MSD that is usually less than the MSD's of either filter

SPARSE ECHO CANCELLATION USING VARIANTS OF LEAST MEAN FOURTH AND LEAST MEAN SQUARE ALGORITHMS

Echo cancellation is the most essential and indispensable component of telephone networks. The impulse responses of most of the networks are sparse in nature; that is, the impulse response has a small percentage of its components with a significant magnitude (large energy), while the rest are zero or small. In these sparse environments, conventional adaptive algorithms like least mean square (LMS) and normalized LMS (NLMS) show substandard and inferior performances. In this paper, the performances of the normalized least mean square (NLMS) algorithm, the normalized least mean fourth (NLMF) and the proportionate normalized least mean fourth (PNLMF) are compared for sparse echo cancellation. The sparseness of both the echo response and the input signal is exploited in this algorithm to achieve improved results at a low computational cost. The PNLMF algorithm showed better results and faster convergence in sparse and non sparse systems, but its results in sparse environments are more impressive. The NLMF algorithm shows good results in sparse environments but not in non-sparse environments. The PNLMS algorithm can be considered superior to the NLMF and NLMS algorithms with respect to the error profile. A modified algorithm, the sparse controlled modified proportionate normalized LMF (SCMPNLMF) algorithm, is proposed, and its performances are compared with the other algorithms

Developing an Enhanced Adaptive Antenna Beamforming Algorithm for Telecommunication Applications

As a key enabler for advanced wireless communication technologies, smart antennas have become an intense field of study. Smart antennas use adaptive beamforming algorithms which allow the antenna system to search for specific signals even in a background of noise and interference. Beamforming is a signal processing technique used to shape the antenna array pattern according to prescribed criteria. In this thesis, a comparative study is presented for various adaptive antenna beamforming algorithms. Least mean square (LMS), normalized least mean square (NLMS), recursive least square (RLS), and sample matrix inversion (SMI) algorithms are studied and analyzed. The study also considers some possible adaptive filter combinations and variations, such as: LMS with SMI weights initialization, and combined NLMS filters with a variable mixing parameter. Furthermore, a new adaptive variable step-size normalized least mean square (VSS-NLMS) algorithm is proposed. Sparse adaptive algorithms, are also studied and analyzed, and two-channel estimations sparse algorithms are applied to an adaptive beamformer, namely: proportionate normalized least-mean-square (PNLMS), and lp norm PNLMS (LP-PNLMS) algorithms. Moreover, a variable step size has been applied to both of these algorithms for improved performance. These algorithms are simulated for antenna arrays with different geometries and sizes, and results are discussed in terms of their convergence speed, max side lobe level (SLL), null depths, steady-state error, and sensitivity to noise. Simulation results confirm the superiority of the proposed VSS-NLMS algorithms over the standard NLMS without the need of using combined filters. Results also show an improved performance for the sparse algorithms after applying the proposed variable step size