What is the difference between correlator and matched filter

On the other hand, the matched filter looks simpler in a way that the input enters the system and produces the correlation functionality at the output. However, it is much harder to design an analog filter whose impulse response is some complicated pulse shape we see the examples of better pulse shapes than a rectangular one in pulse shaping filter.

Hence, the correlator receiver was the preferred choice. After the great advancement in computational power, most of the analog circuits capable of performing analog signal processing e. Now, design and implementation of matched filters for any kind of applications is much more convenient, requires less bookkeeping and combines efficiently with other receiver blocks such as synchronizers and equalizers sometimes I wonder how amazing our world looked like if a revolution like scaling down of a transistor size would have occurred in mechanical world as well.

Hello James,. The cross correlator does the cross-correlation between the noisy signal and noisless signal. The matched filter does the convolution between the received signal and the time reversed copy of the original signal. The math is the same. In the Proakis book chapter 5 a more detailed description of the math is given. Matched filter maximizes the SNR. The cross correlator is easier to implement in hardware. Hope this helps, Anna. Daniel Shub on 16 Jun Same thing. Look at the equations for cross-correlation and convolution and you will see that they only differ by a time reversal.

Honglei Chen on 16 Jun I think the term "matched filter" focuses more on the fact that it maximize the SNR. Cross correlation can be considered as one of the implementations to the matched filter. See Also. Tags cross correlation matched filter. What's the difference? Assuming you mean a data receiver the big difference that I see is that the filtering solution implies that you're doing the convolution correlation each input sample, while the correlation method does the correlation convolution once for each bit decision.

I see no fundamental mathematical difference, though. Yes, in both cases only the output at time T symbol period is relevent. In that case, they're identical. I posted a little prematurely - I need to do some more reading. If only the value at the sampling instant is of interest, then the matched filter and correlator give the same result, as has been already noted. As far as I know the correlation receiver is a generalization of the matched filter receiver.