Nonlinear acoustic echo cancellation with 2nd order adaptive Volterra filters

Acoustic echo cancellers in today' s speakerphones or video conferencing systems rely on the assumption of a linear echo path. Low-cost audio equipment or constraints of portable communication systems cause nonlinear distortions, which limit the echo return loss enhancement achievable by linear adaptation schemes. These distortions are a superposition of different effects, which can be modelled either as memoryless nonlinearities or as nonlinear systems with memory. Proper adaptation schemes for both cases of nonlinearities are discussed. An echo canceller for nonlinear systems with memory based on an adaptive second order Volterra filter is presented. Its performance is demonstrated by measurements with small loudspeakers. The results show an improvement in the echo return loss enhancement of 7 dB over a conventional linear adaptive filter. The additional computational requirement for the presented Volterra filter is comparable to that of existing acoustic echo cancellers.