Improved variable step-size NLMS adaptive filtering algorithm for acoustic echo cancellation

Acoustic echo canceller (AEC) is used in communication and teleconferencing systems to reduce undesirable echoes resulting from the coupling between the loudspeaker and the microphone. In this paper, we propose an improved variable step-size normalized least mean square (VSS-NLMS) algorithm for acoustic echo cancellation applications based on adaptive filtering. The steady-state error of the NLMS algorithm with a fixed step-size (FSS-NLMS) is very large for a non-stationary input. Variable step-size (VSS) algorithms can be used to decrease this error. The proposed algorithm, named MESVSS-NLMS (mean error sigmoid VSS-NLMS), combines the generalized sigmoid variable step-size NLMS (GSVSS-NLMS) with the ratio of the estimation error to the mean history of the estimation error values. It is shown from single-talk and double-talk scenarios using speech signals from TIMIT database that the proposed algorithm achieves a better performance, more than 3 dB of attenuation in the misalignment evaluation compared to GSVSS-NLMS, non-parametric VSS-NLMS (NPVSS-NLMS) and standard NLMS algorithms for a non-stationary input in noisy environments.