Abstract
The effect of periodic impulsive (short duration)
noise on OFDM is investigated. We present results on the nature
of periodic impulsive noise, showing that the PDF of periodic
impulsive noise is not exactly Gaussian. We also present results
showing that periodic impulsive noise can be more devastating
to OFDM compared to random impulsive noise. This is because
periodic impulsive noise energy is not spread by the FFT on
the receiver side of the OFDM, instead it appears periodic in
the frequency domain. Results showing the effect of nulling to
mitigate periodic impulsive noise are presented. We suggest a
simple short block code (as opposed to long block codes) that
can effectively combat the effects of periodic impulsive noise.