Optimisation of multiplier-less FIR filter design techniques

This thesis is concerned with the design of multiplier-less (ML) finite impulse response (FIR) digital filters. The use of multiplier-less digital filters results in simplified filtering structures, better throughput rates and higher speed. These characteristics are very desirable in many DSP systems. This thesis concentrates on the design of digital filters with power-of-two coefficients that result in simplified filtering structures. Two distinct classesof ML FIR filter design algorithms are developed and compared with traditional techniques. The first class is based on the sensitivity of filter coefficients to rounding to power-of-two. Novel elements include extending of the algorithm for multiple-bands filters and introducing mean square error as the sensitivity criterion. This improves the performance of the algorithm and reduces the complexity of resulting filtering structures. The second class of filter design algorithms is based on evolutionary techniques, primarily genetic algorithms. Three different algorithms based on genetic algorithm kernel are developed. They include simple genetic algorithm, knowledge-based genetic algorithm and hybrid of genetic algorithm and simulated annealing. Inclusion of the additional knowledge has been found very useful when re-designing filters or refining previous designs. Hybrid techniques are useful when exploring large, N-dimensional searching spaces. Here, the genetic algorithm is used to explore searching space rapidly, followed by fine search using simulated annealing. This approach has been found beneficial for design of high-order filters. Finally, a formula for estimation of the filter length from its specification and complementing both classes of design algorithms, has been evolved using techniques of symbolic regression and genetic programming. Although the evolved formula is very complex and not easily understandable, statistical analysis has shown that it produces more accurate results than traditional Kaiser's formula. In summary, several novel algorithms for the design of multiplier-less digital filters have been developed. They outperform traditional techniques that are used for the design of ML FIR filters and hence contributed to the knowledge in the field of ML FIR filter design

Measurements, Models, Systems and Design

531 s.

Design of quadrature mirror filter banks with canonical signed digit coefficients using genetic algorithms.

This thesis is about the use of a genetic algorithm to design QMF bank with canonical signed digit coefficients. A filter bank has applications in areas like video and audio coding, data communication, etc. Filter bank design is a multiobjective optimization problem. The performance depends on the reconstruction error of the overall filter bank and the individual performance of the composing lowpass filter. In this thesis we have used reconstruction error of the overall filter bank as our main objective and passband error, stopband error, stopband and passband ripples and transition width of the individual lowpass filter as constraints. Therefore filter bank design can be formulated as single objective multiple constraint optimization problem. A unique genetic algorithm is developed to optimize filer bank coefficients such that the corresponding system\u27s response matches that of an ideal system with an additional constraint that all coefficients are in canonical signed digit (CSD) format. A special restoration technique is used to restore the CSD format of the coefficients after crossover and mutation operators in Genetic algorithm. The proposed restoration technique maintains the specified word length and the maximum number of nonzero digits in filter banks coefficients. Experimental results are presented at the end. It is demonstrated that the designed genetic algorithm is reliable, and efficient for designing QMF banks.Dept. of Electrical and Computer Engineering. Paper copy at Leddy Library: Theses & Major Papers - Basement, West Bldg. / Call Number: Thesis2004 .U67. Source: Masters Abstracts International, Volume: 43-05, page: 1785. Thesis (M.A.Sc.)--University of Windsor (Canada), 2004

NATURAL ALGORITHMS IN DIGITAL FILTER DESIGN

Digital filters are an important part of Digital Signal Processing (DSP), which plays vital roles within the modern world, but their design is a complex task requiring a great deal of specialised knowledge. An analysis of this design process is presented, which identifies opportunities for the application of optimisation. The Genetic Algorithm (GA) and Simulated Annealing are problem-independent and increasingly popular optimisation techniques. They do not require detailed prior knowledge of the nature of a problem, and are unaffected by a discontinuous search space, unlike traditional methods such as calculus and hill-climbing. Potential applications of these techniques to the filter design process are discussed, and presented with practical results. Investigations into the design of Frequency Sampling (FS) Finite Impulse Response (FIR) filters using a hybrid GA/hill-climber proved especially successful, improving on published results. An analysis of the search space for FS filters provided useful information on the performance of the optimisation technique. The ability of the GA to trade off a filter's performance with respect to several design criteria simultaneously, without intervention by the designer, is also investigated. Methods of simplifying the design process by using this technique are presented, together with an analysis of the difficulty of the non-linear FIR filter design problem from a GA perspective. This gave an insight into the fundamental nature of the optimisation problem, and also suggested future improvements. The results gained from these investigations allowed the framework for a potential 'intelligent' filter design system to be proposed, in which embedded expert knowledge, Artificial Intelligence techniques and traditional design methods work together. This could deliver a single tool capable of designing a wide range of filters with minimal human intervention, and of proposing solutions to incomplete problems. It could also provide the basis for the development of tools for other areas of DSP system design

Designs of Digital Filters and Neural Networks using Firefly Algorithm

Firefly algorithm is an evolutionary algorithm that can be used to solve complex multi-parameter problems in less time. The algorithm was applied to design digital filters of different orders as well as to determine the parameters of complex neural network designs. Digital filters have several applications in the fields of control systems, aerospace, telecommunication, medical equipment and applications, digital appliances, audio recognition processes etc. An Artificial Neural Network (ANN) is an information processing paradigm that is inspired by the way biological nervous systems, such as the brain, processes information and can be simulated using a computer to perform certain specific tasks like clustering, classification, and pattern recognition etc. The results of the designs using Firefly algorithm was compared to the state of the art algorithms and found that the digital filter designs produce results close to the Parks McClellan method which shows the algorithm’s capability of handling complex problems. Also, for the neural network designs, Firefly algorithm was able to efficiently optimize a number of parameter values. The performance of the algorithm was tested by introducing various input noise levels to the training inputs of the neural network designs and it produced the desired output with negligible error in a time-efficient manner. Overall, Firefly algorithm was found to be competitive in solving the complex design optimization problems like other popular optimization algorithms such as Differential Evolution, Particle Swarm Optimization and Genetic Algorithm. It provides a number of adjustable parameters which can be tuned according to the specified problem so that it can be applied to a number of optimization problems and is capable of producing quality results in a reasonable amount of time

Digital Filter Design Using Improved Artificial Bee Colony Algorithms

Digital filters are often used in digital signal processing applications. The design objective of a digital filter is to find the optimal set of filter coefficients, which satisfies the desired specifications of magnitude and group delay responses. Evolutionary algorithms are population-based meta-heuristic algorithms inspired by the biological behaviors of species. Compared to gradient-based optimization algorithms such as steepest descent and Newton’s like methods, these bio-inspired algorithms have the advantages of not getting stuck at local optima and being independent of the starting point in the solution space. The limitations of evolutionary algorithms include the presence of control parameters, problem specific tuning procedure, premature convergence and slower convergence rate. The artificial bee colony (ABC) algorithm is a swarm-based search meta-heuristic algorithm inspired by the foraging behaviors of honey bee colonies, with the benefit of a relatively fewer control parameters. In its original form, the ABC algorithm has certain limitations such as low convergence rate, and insufficient balance between exploration and exploitation in the search equations. In this dissertation, an ABC-AMR algorithm is proposed by incorporating an adaptive modification rate (AMR) into the original ABC algorithm to increase convergence rate by adjusting the balance between exploration and exploitation in the search equations through an adaptive determination of the number of parameters to be updated in every iteration. A constrained ABC-AMR algorithm is also developed for solving constrained optimization problems.There are many real-world problems requiring simultaneous optimizations of more than one conflicting objectives. Multiobjective (MO) optimization produces a set of feasible solutions called the Pareto front instead of a single optimum solution. For multiobjective optimization, if a decision maker’s preferences can be incorporated during the optimization process, the search process can be confined to the region of interest instead of searching the entire region. In this dissertation, two algorithms are developed for such incorporation. The first one is a reference-point-based MOABC algorithm in which a decision maker’s preferences are included in the optimization process as the reference point. The second one is a physical-programming-based MOABC algorithm in which physical programming is used for setting the region of interest of a decision maker. In this dissertation, the four developed algorithms are applied to solve digital filter design problems. The ABC-AMR algorithm is used to design Types 3 and 4 linear phase FIR differentiators, and the results are compared to those obtained by the original ABC algorithm, three improved ABC algorithms, and the Parks-McClellan algorithm. The constrained ABC-AMR algorithm is applied to the design of sparse Type 1 linear phase FIR filters of filter orders 60, 70 and 80, and the results are compared to three state-of-the-art design methods. The reference-point-based multiobjective ABC algorithm is used to design of asymmetric lowpass, highpass, bandpass and bandstop FIR filters, and the results are compared to those obtained by the preference-based multiobjective differential evolution algorithm. The physical-programming-based multiobjective ABC algorithm is used to design IIR lowpass, highpass and bandpass filters, and the results are compared to three state-of-the-art design methods. Based on the obtained design results, the four design algorithms are shown to be competitive as compared to the state-of-the-art design methods

New design and realization techniques for a class of perfect reconstruction two-channel FIR filterbanks and wavelets bases

This paper proposes two new methods for designing a class of two-channel perfect reconstruction (PR) finite impulse response (FIR) filterbanks (FBs) and wavelets with K-regularity of high order and studies its multiplier-less implementation. It is based on the two-channel structural PR FB proposed by Phoong et al. The basic principle is to represent the K-regularity condition as a set of linear equality constraints in the design variables so that the least square and minimax design problems can be solved, respectively, as a quadratic programming problem with linear equality constraints (QPLC) and a semidefinite programming (SDP) problem. We also demonstrate that it is always possible to realize such FBs with sum-of-powers-of-two (SOPOT) coefficients while preserving the regularity constraints using Bernstein polynomials. However, this implementation usually requires long coefficient wordlength and another direct-form implementation, which can realize multiplier-less wavelets with K-regularity condition up to fifth order, is proposed. Several design examples are given to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed methods. © 2004 IEEE.published_or_final_versio

Linear Operation of Switch-Mode Outphasing Power Amplifiers

Radio transceivers are playing an increasingly important role in modern society. The ”connected” lifestyle has been enabled by modern wireless communications. The demand that has been placed on current wireless and cellular infrastructure requires increased spectral efficiency however this has come at the cost of power efficiency. This work investigates methods of improving wireless transceiver efficiency by enabling more efficient power amplifier architectures, specifically examining the role of switch-mode power amplifiers in macro cell scenarios. Our research focuses on the mechanisms within outphasing power amplifiers which prevent linear amplification. From the analysis it was clear that high power non-linear effects are correctable with currently available techniques however non-linear effects around the zero crossing point are not. As a result signal processing techniques for suppressing and avoiding non-linear operation in low power regions are explored. A novel method of digital pre-distortion is presented, and conventional techniques for linearisation are adapted for the particular needs of the outphasing power amplifier. More unconventional signal processing techniques are presented to aid linearisation of the outphasing power amplifier, both zero crossing and bandwidth expansion reduction methods are designed to avoid operation in nonlinear regions of the amplifiers. In combination with digital pre-distortion the techniques will improve linearisation efforts on outphasing systems with dynamic range and bandwidth constraints respectively. Our collaboration with NXP provided access to a digital outphasing power amplifier, enabling empirical analysis of non-linear behaviour and comparative analysis of behavioural modelling and linearisation efforts. The collaboration resulted in a bench mark for linear wideband operation of a digital outphasing power amplifier. The complimentary linearisation techniques, bandwidth expansion reduction and zero crossing reduction have been evaluated in both simulated and practical outphasing test benches. Initial results are promising and indicate that the benefits they provide are not limited to the outphasing amplifier architecture alone. Overall this thesis presents innovative analysis of the distortion mechanisms of the outphasing power amplifier, highlighting the sensitivity of the system to environmental effects. Practical and novel linearisation techniques are presented, with a focus on enabling wide band operation for modern communications standards