Methods and apparatus for reducing the effect of impulse noise on receivers

An impulse noise detection circuit, comprising:

• a slicer for receiving an amplitude modulated signal including baseband symbols and for generating target symbols;
• a sliced error estimation circuit coupled to the slicer for generating an instantaneous error energy signal as a function of the baseband and target symbols;
• a comparator coupled to the sliced error estimation circuit for comparing the instantaneous error energy signal to an impulse noise threshold, the comparator generating an impulse indicator signal indicative of the presence of impulse noise when the instantaneous error energy signal assumes a value that exceeds the impulse noise threshold.

An apparatus for detecting impulse noise in a signal including a symbol, the apparatus comprising:

• error estimation means for generating an estimate of the error between a measured symbol value and a target symbol value;
• and
• comparison means for comparing the estimated error to an impulse noise threshold and for generating a signal indicative of the presence of impulse noise when the estimated error exceeds the impulse noise threshold.

A method of detecting impulse noise in a signal which represents digital data, the method comprising the steps of:

• generating an estimate of an error between a measured signal value and one of a plurality of discrete signal target values;
• and
• comparing the estimated error to an impulse noise threshold to determine if the impulse noise threshold has been exceeded.