Spectrum estimation

Nikita prabhu Me microelectronics

Introduction
The main objective of spectrumestimation is the determination of the power spectrum density (PSD) of a random process quantifies the distribution of total power as a function of frequency estimation of the PSD is based on a set of observed data samples from the process assumption is that the random process is at least wide sense stationary, Mean is constant and variance depends on lag of autocorrelation plays a major role in many applied sciences such as radar, speech processing, underwater acoustics, biomedical ,signal processing, sonar, seismology, vibration analysis, control theory, and econometrics.

 Random process: represent time fluctuations of a certain quantity which cannot be fully described by deterministic functions. A random process can be viewed as a collection of a possibly infinite number of functions, also called realizations. Realizations are denoted as {x[n]} Observed samples {x^[n]}

 Spectrum estimation methods can be classified into two categories: nonparametric and parametric Nonparametric: the estimate of the autocorrelation sequence of the random process from the observed data Parametric:we first postulate a model for the process of interest. the model is described by a small number of parameters

Non parametric
Assumption is process wide-sense stationarity estimating the autocorrelation sequence from the observed samples and then applying the DTFT to these estimates. yields nonnegative estimates of the PSD, which is not the case with the unbiased estimator

Periodogram
first we determine the autocorrelation sequence then take the DTFT the periodogram is proportional to the squared magnitude of the DTFT of the observed data To allow for finer frequency spacing in the computed periodogram, we define a zero padded sequence good estimators is that they yield better estimates when the number of observed data samples increases if the number of data samples tends to infinity, the estimates should converge to the true values of the estimated parameters

periodogram
if for finite number of data samples the estimator is biased, the bias should tend to zero as N tends to infinty as should the variance of the estimate,estimator is called consistent. As N increases , number of parameters to measured increase and variance increases. the mean value of the periodogram is a smeared version of the true PSD windows have been proposed which weight the data samples in the middle of the observed data more than those towards the ends of the observed data to reduce the variance of the periodogram

Periodogram
magnitude of the DTFT of a window provides two important characteristics about it. A narrow main lobe allows for a better resolution, and low side lobes improve the smoothing of the estimated spectrum.

Bartlett method
One approach to reduce the variance of the periodogram is to subdivide the observed data record into K nonoverlapping segments, find the periodogram of each segment, finally evaluate the average of the so-obtained periodograms. This spectrum estimator, also known as the Bartletts estimator, has variance that is smaller than the variance of the periodogram. the variance of the periodogram is reduced by a factor of K however, is paid by a decrease in resolution.

Welch method
same idea as Bartletts approach of splitting the data into segments and finding the average of their periodograms. The difference is that the segments are overlapped, where the overlaps are usually 50% or 75% large, and the data within a segment are windowed increased number of segments reduces the variance of the estimator the longer segments improve its resolution

Blackman tukey
the autocorrelations with smaller lags will be estimated more accurately than the oneswith lags close toN because of the different number of terms that are used in the summation the large variance of the periodogramcan be ascribed to the large weight given to poor autocorrelation estimates used in its evaluation. Blackman and Tukey proposed to weight the autocorrelation sequence so that the autocorrelations with higher lags are weighted less

Minimum Variance Spectrum Estimator

the value of the periodogram at frequency f can be obtained by squaring the magnitude of the filter output at N 1 the periodogram may be viewed as a bank of FIR filters with equal bandwidths. The width of these filters, however, is data dependent and optimized to minimize their response to components outside the band of interest Length of filter should be less then N for relaibility If length is large, bw is small and resolution is higher However with it lags for auto correlationi ncrease and variance increases

Multiwindow Spectrum Estimator

the performance of the periodogram by multiplying the data with a nonrectangular window. they have been constructed to have narrow mainlobes and low sidelobes. The method amounts to applying multiple windows to the data sequences are orthogonal and their Fourier transforms have the maximum energy concentration in a given bandwidth W. Selection of the analysis bandwidthW whose typical values are between 1:5=N and 20=N. The number of windows m depends on the selected W, and is given by b2NWc, where |x| denotes the largest integer less than or equal to x. The spectrum estimator has a resolution equal to W. The MW method is consistent, and its variance for fixed W tends to zero as 1/N when N tends to infinity The variance, however, as well as the bias and the resolution, depend on the bandwidth W.

Advantages of nonparametric methods Can be computed using fft Disadvantages of nonparametric Low spectral leakage for short records Requirement of windonwing Advantages of parametric methods Increased spectral resolution Can be applied for short length applications