Active Noise Control: A Tutorial Review

Active noise control (ANC) is achieved by introducing a canceling “antinoise” wave through an appropriate array of secondary sources. These secondary sources are interconnected through an electronic system using a specific signal processing algorithm for the particular cancellation scheme. ANC has application to a wide variety of problems in manufacturing, industrial operations, and consumer products. The emphasis of this paper is on the practical aspects of ANC systems in terms of adaptive signal processing and digital signal processing (DSP) implementation for real-world applications. In this paper, the basic adaptive algorithm for ANC is developed and analyzed based on single-channel broad-band feedforward control. This algorithm is then modified for narrow-band feedforward and adaptive feedback control. In turn, these single-channel ANC algorithms are expanded to multiple-channel cases. Various online secondary-path modeling techniques and special adaptive algorithms, such as lattice, frequency-domain, subband, and recursive-least-squares, are also introduced. Applications of these techniques to actual problems are highlighted by several examples.