Advanced DSP

Matched Filter

All material is from the book

« Fundamentals of Statistical Signal

Processing
Volume II- Detection Theory»
by S. Kay

Dr Usman Zabit

Please report any errors to

usman.zabit@seecs.edu.pk
 4.3 MATCHED FILTERS
 We begin our discussion of optimal detection
approaches by considering the problem of detecting a
known deterministic signal in white Gaussian noise
(WGN).
 The Neyman-Pearson (NP) criterion will be used,

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but as discussed in Chapter 3, the resulting test
statistic will be identical to that obtained using the
Bayesian risk criterion.
 The detection problem is to distinguish between the
hypotheses

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 4.3 MATCHED FILTERS
 where the signal 𝑠[𝑛] is assumed known and 𝑤[𝑛] is
WGN with variance 𝜎 2 .
 WGN is defined as a zero mean Gaussian noise
process with autocorrelation function (ACF)

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 4.3 MATCHED FILTERS

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 where 𝛿[𝑘] is the discrete-time delta function.
 The NP detector decides 𝐻1 if the likelihood ratio
exceeds a threshold

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4.3 MATCHED FILTERS

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 4.3 MATCHED FILTERS
 Taking the logarithm (a monotonically increasing
transformation) of both sides does not change the
inequality (see Section 3.3) so that

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 4.3 MATCHED FILTERS
 Since 𝑠[𝑛] is known (and thus not a function of the
data), we may incorporate the energy term into the
threshold to yield

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 4.3 MATCHED FILTERS
 Calling the right-hand-side of the inequality a new
threshold 𝛾′, we decide 𝐻1 if

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 This is our NP detector and as expected consists of a
test statistic 𝑇(𝒙) (a function of the data) and a
threshold 𝛾′ , which is chosen to satisfy a given
probability of false alarm 𝑃𝐹𝐴 = 𝛼.

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 4.3 MATCHED FILTERS
 In general, the test statistic of (4.3) weights the data
samples according to the value of the signal.
 More weight is reserved for the larger signal samples.

 Even negative signal samples are weighted in the

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same manner because by multiplying
𝑥[𝑛] by 𝑠[𝑛], negative samples yield a positive
contribution to the sum.
 The detector of (4.3) is referred to as a
correlator or replica-correlator since we correlate
the received data with a replica of the signal.
 The detector is shown in Figure 4.1a.

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REPLICA-CORRELATOR

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 4.3 MATCHED FILTERS
 An alternative interpretation of the test statistic is
based on relating the correlation process to the effect
of a finite impulse response (FIR) filter on the data.
 Specifically, if 𝑥[𝑛] is the input to an FIR filter

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with impulse response ℎ[𝑛], where ℎ[𝑛] is nonzero for
𝑛 = 0,1, … , 𝑁 − 1 , then the output at time n is

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4.3 MATCHED FILTERS
 If we let the impulse response be a “flipped around”
version of the signal or

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 4.3 MATCHED FILTERS
 which with a change of summation variable is
identical to the replica-correlator.
 This implementation of the NP detector is shown and
is known as a matched filter.

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 4.3 MATCHED FILTERS
 The filter impulse response is matched to the signal.
 Figure 4.2 shows some examples.

 The matched filter impulse response is obtained by

flipping 𝑠[𝑛] about n = 0 and shifting to the right by N -
1 samples.

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 4.3 MATCHED FILTERS

 Although the test statistic is obtained by sampling the

matched filter output at time n = N - 1, it is instructive
to view the entire output of the matched filter.
 For the DC level signal shown in Figure 4.2b, the

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signal output is given via the convolution sum in
Figure 4.3.
 Note that the signal output attains a maximum at the
sampling time.
 This is true in general (see Problem 4.2).

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MATCHED FILTER OUTPUT

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 4.3 MATCHED FILTERS

 When noise is present, the maximum may be perturbed

but it should be intuitively clear that the best detection
performance will be obtained by sampling at n = N - 1.
 If, however, the signal does not begin at n = 0, but we

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assume that it does and use the corresponding matched
filter, poor detection performance may be obtained.
 An example is given in Problem 4.3. Thus, for signals
with unknown arrival times, we cannot use the
matched filter in its present form.
 In Chapter 7 we will see how to modify it to circumvent
this problem.

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 ASPECTS OF MATCHED FILTERS
1. Another property of the matched filter is that it maximizes
the SNR at the output of an FIR filter.
2. The use of a matched filter for signal detection leads to the
concept of processing gain.

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 Processing gain can be viewed as the advantage of making a
decision based on a test statistic, which is an optimal
combination of the data, as opposed to a decision based on a
direct examination of the data.
 It is defined as the SNR of the optimal test statistic, i.e, the
processed data, divided by the SNR of a single data sample,
i.e., the unprocessed data.
 As an example, consider detection of a DC level in WGN.
 By using a matched filter to process 𝑁 samples the
performance improves to 18

 𝑃𝐺 = 10 log10 𝑁 𝑑𝐵.