  Most of existing results on regularized system identification focus on
regularized impulse response estimation. Since the impulse response model is a
special case of orthonormal basis functions, it is interesting to consider if
it is possible to tackle the regularized system identification using more
compact orthonormal basis functions. In this paper, we explore two
possibilities. First, we construct reproducing kernel Hilbert space of impulse
responses by orthonormal basis functions and then use the induced reproducing
kernel for the regularized impulse response estimation. Second, we extend the
regularization method from impulse response estimation to the more general
orthonormal basis functions estimation. For both cases, the poles of the basis
functions are treated as hyperparameters and estimated by empirical Bayes
method. Then we further show that the former is a special case of the latter,
and more specifically, the former is equivalent to ridge regression of the
coefficients of the orthonormal basis functions.
