A robust M-estimate adaptive filter for impulse noise suppression

In this paper, a robust M-estimate adaptive filter for impulse noise suppression is proposed. The objective function used is based on a robust M-estimate. It has the ability to ignore or down weight large signal error when certain thresholds are exceeded. A systematic method for estimating such thresholds is also proposed. An advantage of the proposed method is that its solution is governed by a system of linear equation. Therefore, fast adaptation algorithms for traditional linear adaptive filters can be applied. In particular, a M-estimate recursive least square (M-RLS) adaptive algorithm is studied in detail. Simulation results show that it is more robust against individual and consecutive impulse noise than the MN-LMS and the N-RLS algorithms. It also has fast convergence speed and a low steady state error similar to its RLS counterpart.