204

IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON ACOUSTICS, SPEECH, AND SIGNAL PROCESSING, VOL. ASSP-27, NO. 2, APRIL 1979

Practical Design Rules for Optimum FIR Bandpass Digital Filters FRED MINTZER AND BEDE LIU
Abstract-Thecomputer program of [ l ] forthe design of optimal FIR filters requires, as an input, the order of the filter to be designed. A reliable orderestimate for the case of low-pass filters is known [ 21. In this paper, we present a simple estimate of the order of optimum FIR bandpass filters. The accuracy of the estimate isdemonstrated.

Thus, an approximation for the order of a narrow-band filter suggested by the above observations is
h

c_(Sp, 6,)lAFm.
111. THE ESTIMATE

(2)

I. INTRODUCTION The computer program of McClellan et al. [ 11 can be used to design optimal FIR bandpass filters to meet design specifications. However, the order of the filter to be designed is an input to the program. A problem of practical interest is to find the lowest order filter which satisfies certain maximum ripplerequirements.Thiscan be accomplishedby designing asequence of filters,theorders of which converge to the of designing minimum required. order However, task the this sequence of filters can be costly, especially if no reliable estimate of the filter is known. The estimation of filter order for the case of optimal low-pass filters has been investigated by Herrmann et al. [ 21. In this paper we investigate the problem of estimating the order of optimalbandpassfilters by studying the effects of the design specifications. A simple estimate of the filter order is developed, and its accuracy demonstrated. is
11. EFFECTS OF THE FREQUENCY DESIGN PARAMETERS ON FILTER ORDER

In the previous section we found that the order of a bandAF, was approximately pass filter with smaller transition band the same as the order of a bandpass filter having equal transition bandwidths AF,. However, bandpass filters with equally wide transition bands enjoy a special relationship to low-pass filters. If { h n } , - N n N is the impulse response of a lowpass filter, with transition bandwidth AF and ripples 6, and a then it can be easily shown that { h , cos (27rFcn)}, - N < , n < N is the impulse response of a bandpass filter with equal transition bands of width A F , passband ripple 6, + 6,, and stopband ripple 26,. This relationship suggests that the order estimate for a bandpass filter should have the same formas the order estimate for a low-pass filter as given in ['2]. Thus,

< <

? = Cw(6p, 6,)lAFm + g ( 6 p , 6s)AFm + 1 i (3) which, of course, is merely a refinement of (2). The effect of the second term is significant only for low-order filters with
large transition bands. The form of the estimate (3) was confirmed by the design of over 1200equiripplefilters using thecomputerprogram of [ 1 1. All filters of the design set had F, = 0.25, Fp = 0.1, and AF, = AF,.. Orders of the filters designed were 127, 51, 19, 1 1, and 7. The values of C = ( N - l ) A F , for the N = 127 data are illustrated in Fig. 2. As in [ 21, the values of C for the N = 127 data were considered to be good approximations to Cw. For those filters, the choiceof
C J s p , 6,) = [ b l (loglo6p)2 + bz loglo6p + b3 1 loglo6,

The six parameters needed t o specify a bandpass filter are: F,, F,, AF,, AF,., 6,, and 6,, where F, is the passband center frequency, Fp is the width of passband, AF, and AF, are the 6, and 6, are the leftandrighttransitionbandwidths,and passband and stopband ripples. These quantities are illustrated in Fig. 1. In this section we will examine the effects that the frequency parameters (Fc, F,, AFI, AF,) have on the filter order. To study the effect of the center frequency F, on the filter order, a large number of filters were designed to meet different ripplerequirements.Thequantities F,, AFl, and AF,. were fixed, and the filter orders were observed as Fc was varied. It was observed that the filter order was nearly independent of passband position over large regions of each data set [ 3 ] . The effect of passband width on filter order was then studied. After fixing the quantities F,, AFl, and AF,., the filter order required to meet the ripple specifications was observed as thepassbandwidth wasvaried.Thefilterorder was observed to be nearly independent of passband width31 . [ The effects of the transition bandwidths AF, and AF,. were also studied. It was found that the dependence of the filter order on the transition bandwidths is predominately a dependency on the width of the smallertransitionband [ 3 ] . We denote this quantity byAF,,

+ [b4 (log106p)2 + b5 loglo6p + b6 1

(4)

was found to provide a good fit over large regions of the data. The relative mean-square error was minimized when the values of bi's were b l = 0.01201 b3 = -0.51325 b5 = -0.57054 (5) bz = 0.09664 b4 = 0.00203 b6 =-0.44314.

The maximum error in this data fit is less than 4 percent in the range 0.1 6, > 0.00001, 0.1 > 6,> 0.00001. This includes most filters of practical interest [ 3 ] . To determine a simple functional form of g(6,, 6,) we plot, in Fig. 3, the quantity C = ( N - l ) A F , versus 6,. It is seen that a good choice is

>

d 6 p , 6,) = c1 log10(6p/6,) + c2.

(6)

This is the same form as f(6,, 6,) in [ 21, which was chosen t o fit data of similar appearance.Theminimumrelativemean0.1 > 6, 0.00001, square error for the data in the region > 0.0000 1, N < 5 1 resulted when 0.1 a,

>

>

AF, =AF,}.(AFl, min

(1)

~1

=-14.6 (7)

~2

=-16.9.
THE

Further, the order was nearly inversely proportional to AF,.

Manuscript received February 13, 1978; revised July 19, 1978. This researchwas sponsoredin part bytheNationalScienceFoundation bythe Air ForceOfficeof underGrant ENG 76-19808 andinpart Scientific Research, USAF, under Grant AF-AFOSR-76-3083. The authors are with the Department of ElectricalEngineeringand Computer Science, Princeton University, Princeton,NJ 08540.

Iv. ACCURACY OF

ESTIMATE

of theorder of Equations(3)-(7) give asimpleestimate bandpassfiltersthatmatchesvery well theorders of filters illustratedin Fig. 3. Totesttheaccuracy of thisestimate, > 605filters were designed withripplesintherange.0.1 6, 2 0.00001and 0.1 6, > 0.00001.Theresultshowed of the actual that 82 percent of the estimates are within *4 filter order, and 96 percent are within +6 of the actual filter

>

0096-3518/79/0400-0204$00.75 O 1979 IEEE

IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON ACOUSTICS, SPEECH, AND SIGNAL PROCESSING, VOL. ASSP-27, NO. 2, APRIL 1979

205

N-ll

K -50 Nz127.51

NORMALIZED FREQUENCY

Fig. 1. Definition of bandpass filter parameters.

N=127,51

-100

-80

-60 -40 20 U)G10(85)

-20

Fig. 2. Data used for the numerical approximation

F, = 0.25, Fp = 0.1, A F l = AF,.

of C,(6p, t i s )

-100 -00 -60 -40 -20 20 LOGpJ8 s 1

0
= 51, N = 19,

Fig. 3. Performance C as a function of N for N = 127, N

N = 1 1 , N = I.

order. It is also noted that the order estimate slightly underestimates the actual filter order. This estimate was also evaluated on a set of 50 filters whose frequency specifications were chosen random. at Uniform random variables were used to pick Fp, AF,, AF, and the two stopband widths. Each stopband width had a mean three times the mean of Fp, AF,, and AF,. Filters with estimated order of over 200 were not designed, nor were filters with a ratio larger transitionbandwidthtosmallertransitionbandwidth were considered to be greaterthan 2. Thediscardedfilters less representative of filters encountered in practical situations. These designs showed that 80 percent of the estimates were 96 percent were with f 4 of the actual filter order, and that within +6 of the actual filter order. ( 3 ) loses itsaccuracy We have observedthattheestimate if the ratio
R =

. I

6 2

1 3

: 4

: : : : : 5 6 7 8 9 R = AFmox/AFmin

: . 1 0

larger transition band smaller transition band

Fig. 4. Correction factors needed for large R.

becomes large. These filters are perhaps not of much practical be improved if it is decreased by the quantity O.O34(R - 2)&. of 25 filters interest. For large R ,this inaccuracy, although small, becomes This correction was used to estimate the order at random. We significant. In Fig. 4, we present a graph of the factors which, whosespecifications,asbefore,werechosen note that 19 of the 25 filters designed have estimates within whenmultipliedby the estimate of (3)-(7), will correct for f 6 of the actual filter order. Ingeneral, the variance of the large R . Each factor was found by averaging the corrections needed for five filters of length 100. The estimate of (3) can errors increases with increasing R .

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IEEE TRANSACTIONS ONACOUSTICS, SPEECH, AND SIGNAL PROCESSING, VOL. ASSP-27, NO. 2 , APRIL 1979

V. CONCLUSIONS Formostfilters of practicalinterest,agoodestimate of [I] optimum FIR bandpass filter has been determined. It is given by ( 3 1 4 7 ) . The simplicity of theform of (3) enables thefilter designer to estimate the value of ,, 6 or AF, achievable by a filter [2] 6 , of this is given in [ 41. of given order. A discussion For most filters of interest, (3) should be accurate to within [3] +4 filter orders. However, the orders of filters with one relativelylarge transitionbandorwithextremely large or small values of passbandwidth Or stopbandwidth W i l l not beas [4] accurately estimated. A simple improvement issuggested for the case that one transition band is much larger than the other.
J.

REFERENCES

H McCleuan, T. w. Parks, . and L, R. Rabiner, computer A program for designing optimum FIR linear phase digital filters, IEEE Trans. Audio Electroacoust., vol. AU-21, 506-526, pp. Dec. 1973. 0. Herrmann, L.R. Rabiner, and D. S. K. Chan, Practical design rules for optimum impulse finite response filters, digital Bell sysf- Tech*J** vO1. 529pp*769-799, July-Aug. 1973* F. Mintzer and B. Liu, An estimate of the order of an optimum FIRbandpassdigitalfilter, in Proc. IEEE 1978 Int. Con$ on Acoust., Speech, Signa~Processing, 1978, pp. 483-486. May L. R. Rabiner, Approximate design relationships for low-pass IEEE Trans. Audio Elechoacoust., vol. AU-21, FIR digital filters, pp. 456-460, Oct. 1973.

Abstracts of Manuscripts in Review

See inside back cover for details.

Multichannel Zero-Crossing-Interval Pitch Estimation

DAVID H. FRIEDMAN Abstract-A method for estimating the pitch of voiced speech is presented, based on the following series of operations: short-time spectral analysis by a bank of bandpass filters, envelope extraction on the filter outputs, low-frequency emphasis along with dc-level removal, and bin analysisofzero-crossingintervaltimes of the resultingwaveforms. The histogram of occurrences thus obtained, after smoothing, is taken as the pitch-period estimator function for a single frame of speech. In a test of immunity to input degradation, performance appeared comparable to other well-known methods. However, the method described involves mostly time-serial processing, allowing a hybrid analog-digital realization attractive for real-time applications. The author is with the Faculty of Engineering, Tel-Aviv University, Tel-Aviv, Israel.

The Effects of Noise on the Autoregressive Spectral Estimator

STEVEN M. KAY Abstruct-Theautoregressivepower-spectraldensityestimatorpossesses excellent resolution properties. However, it has been shown that, for the case of a sinusoidal autoregressive process,the addition of noise to the timeseriesresults inadecreaseinspectralresolution. It is proven that, in general, the effect of white noise on the autoregressive spectral estimate is to produce a smoothed spectrum. This smoothing is a result of the introduction of spectral zeros due to the noise. Finally, the use ofalarge-orderautoregressivemodel to combat the effects of noiseis discussed.

The author is with the SubmarineSignalDivision,RaytheonCompany, Portsmouth, RI 02871.

Debiasing EquationError Frequency Detection of

a Noisy Sinusoid WithoutNoise Covariance Prespecification C. RICHARD JOHNSON, JR. AND ANDREW L. HAMM Abstract-Thebiasin the equationerrorestimationof the parameters of an oscillatory difference equation, the free response of which is obscured by white zero-mean noise, adversely influences frequency estimates of the underlying sinusoid. A nonlinear mapping debiasing the frequencyestimate supports anovelphilosophy for parameter of the resultingapproach identification.Discrepanciesinsimulation pinpoint flaws in the currently accepted bias formula. C. R. Johnson, Jr. issupported byEngineering Foundation Grant RC-A-77-1D. The authors with are the Department of Electrical Engineering, VirginiaPolytechnic Institute and State University,Blacksburg, VA 2406 1.

ITIF-Iterative Inverse Filtering Algorithmand Simultaneous Estimation of Poles Zeros in and Speech Analysis
IRA

s. KONVALINKA AND MIROSLAV R. MATAUSEK

Abstract-A new algorithm is proposed for simultaneous estimation of poles and zeros in speech analysis. The algorithm is based on estimating the unknown system input and improvement of this estimate
I. S . Konvalinka is with the BorisKidriC institute-VinEa, Beograd, Yugoslavia. M. R. MatauSekis with the Faculty of ElectricalEngineering,University of Beograd, Beograd, Yugoslavia.