Scribd
Upload
25 views

AWGN

Uploaded by

Thulasi Raman
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
25 views

AWGN

Uploaded by

Thulasi Raman
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
You are on page 1/ 3

Additive White Gaussian Noise

A basic and generally accepted model for thermal noise in communication channels,
is the set of assumptions that

 the noise is additive, i.e., the received signal equals the transmit signal plus
some noise, where the noise is statisticaly independent of the signal.
 the noise is white, i.e, the power spectral density is flat, so the autocorrelation
of the noise in time domain is zero for any non-zero time offset.
 the noise samples have a Gaussian distribution.

Mostly it is also assumed that the channel is Linear and Time Invariant. The most
basic results further asume that it is also frequency non-selective.

Optimal signal detection in AWGN LTI channel


The theory for signal transmission over AWGN LTI channels is very well developed
and covered in many excellent text books. Many fundamental theorems in signal
detection theory have been deveoped during World War II, to improve and automate
the radar detection of enemy airplanes and ships. The theory of the matched filter
receiver is of particular interest. The concept was introduced by D.O. North with the
RCA labs in Princeton, in 1943.

Figure: possible
implementation of a
matched filter receiver.
The signal is multiplied
by a locally stored
reference copy and
integrated over time
(correlation).

The matched filter correlates the incoming signal with a locally stored reference copy
of the transmit waveform. The matched filter maximizes the signal-to-noise ratio for a
known signal. It can be shown to be the optimal detector if

 the channel produces Additive White Gaussian Noise (AWGN),


 the channel is linear and time-invariant (LTI), and
 an exact time reference is available, the signal amplitude as a function of time
is precisely known.
3 minute video clip from cource on radio communication, covering
the matched filter princle (mov)

Whitened Matched Filter

If the noise is non-white, the matched filter can still be applied. In this case, one can
pre-filter the incoming signal, to make the noise component white. This is called a
non- whitening filter. Evidently, this also filters the wanted signal. Therefore, the filtered
incoming signal is not "matched to" (i.e., correlated with) the reference transmit
white signal, but with a reference signal that is fed through the a filter that is identical to the
noise whitening filter. Thus, two copies of the whitening filter are needed. It can be shown
that one can build a detector that mathematically is equivalent, but only uses one
filter.

Matched Filter for Wireless Channels

If the channel is dispersive, the matched filter concept can still be used, but one
must multiply the incoming signal with a locally generated copy of the expected
dispersive waveform after transmission over the channel. That is, the receiver must
channel estimate the channel impulse response and apply this to the reference signal
waveform. The incoming signal is correlated with a reference waveform, which
is dispersed in the same manner as the channel disperses the radio signal.
A complication is that such dispersion causes intersymbol interference.
Theorectically, it is no longer optimum to detect the received symbols one by one.
The "maximum likelihood" (ML) receiver correlates the incoming sequence with
dispersed sequences of potentially transmitted waveforms, containing multiple
successive bits.

In the special case that the received signal is a direct sequence CDMA signal, this
leads to the concept of a rake receiver.

You might also like