Prewhitening Followed by Sampling Versus Sampling Followed by Prewhitening for Detection

Document Type

Article

Date of Original Version

1-1-2024

Abstract

The detection of known signals in colored Gaussian noise typically involves applying a matched filter to prewhitened data samples in the discrete-time domain. This is achieved by sampling the continuous-time data and applying a prewhitener before applying a matched filter. An alternative approach switches the order of sampling and whitening; whitens the data using an analog prewhitener before sampling. These two methods have been widely regarded as equivalent when sampling at the Nyquist or a higher rate. In this study, we demonstrate that these approaches are indeed equivalent when all Nyquist or higher rate samples are utilized. However, when performing detection using only a subset of the Nyquist samples, the equivalence breaks down. We show that for sparse signal detection, these approaches diverge; the implementation utilizing an analog prewhitener followed by a sampler is both computationally feasible and superior in terms of detection performance.

Publication Title, e.g., Journal

IEEE Access

Volume

12

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