The effects of periodic impulsive noise on OFDM

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.