EXPERIMENT 3

MATCHED FILTER AND BIT-ERROR RATE (BER)

OBJECTIVES
In this experiment you will investigate the signal detection process by studying
elements of a receiver and of the decoding process. In particular you will:
• investigate the characteristics of matched filters;
• study performance of various receiver structures based on different receiver
filters by measuring probability of bit error;
• use the eye diagram as an investigative tool to set parameters of the detec-
tion process.

PRE-LAB ASSIGNMENT
1. A matched filter is to be designed to detect the rectangular pulse
³ t − T /2 ´
b
r(t) = rect , with Tb = 1 msec.
Tb
a. Determine the impulse response of the matched filter.
b. Determine the output of the matched filter if r(t) is the input.
c. Repeat parts a and b for a triangular pulse of 10 msec duration.

2. Let Y (t) = X(t) + n(t), represent the waveform at the output of a channel.
X(t) is a polar NRZ waveform with unit pulse amplitude and binary data
rate Rb of 1 kbps. n(t) is a white noise process with PSD function:
Sn (f ) = No /2 = 0.5 × 10−4 W/Hz.
If Y (t) is applied to a matched-filter receiver:
a. Determine the rms value of n(t) and the peak signal amplitude at the
output of the matched filter.
b. Determine Eb , the average energy of X(t) in a bit period.
p
c. Determine the probability of bit error Pe = Q( 2Eb /No ).

3. If Y (t) in Question 2 is applied to a RC-filter with frequency response:

1
Hrc (f ) = ,
1 + j2πf RC
with RC = 1/(2000π),
a. determine the peak signal amplitude and rms value of the noise at
the filter output;
b. determine the probability of bit error Pe , if X(t) were to be detected
by a receiver based on the RC-filter.
2 Experiment 3: MATCHED FILTER AND BIT-ERROR RATE (BER) ELE 745

PROCEDURE
A . Characteristics of Matched Filters

A.1 Generate a rectangular pulse with unit pulse amplitude and 1 msec pulse
duration.

À r = wave gen(1,’polar nrz’,1000);

A.2 Display r and the impulse response of a matched filter based on r.

À subplot(311), waveplot(r)
À subplot(312), match(’polar nrz’)

A.3 Observe the matched filter output if r is applied to its input.

À rm = match(’polar nrz’,r);
À subplot(313), waveplot(rm)

Q3.1 Determine the time when the filter output reaches its maximum
value. How is this time related to the waveform r?

A.4 Repeat parts A.1–A.3 for a triangular pulse with 10 msec pulse width and
unit peak amplitude.

À r = wave gen(1,’triangle’,100);
À clf; subplot(311), waveplot(r)
À subplot(312), match(’triangle’)
À rm = match(’triangle’,r);
À subplot(313), waveplot(rm)

Q3.2 If the triangular pulse width is changed to 1 msec, determine

the peak amplitude of the matched filter output?

A.5 Repeat parts A.1–A.3 for a manchester pulse with 10 msec pulse width
and unit peak amplitude. Predict the matched filter impulse response and
matched filter output. Verify your predictions using MATLAB functions.
 ELE 745 Experiment 3: MATCHED FILTER AND BIT-ERROR RATE (BER) 3

A.6 Generate a polar NRZ waveform that represents the 5-sample binary se-
quence [ 1 0 0 1 0 ]. The binary data rate Rb is 1 kbps and the pulse
amplitude A is 1 V.

À x5 = wave gen([1 0 0 1 0],’polar nrz’,1000);

À clf, subplot(211), waveplot(x5)

Record the waveform x5

A.7 Apply x5 to a matched filter. Record output.

À subplot(212), waveplot( match(’polar nrz’,x5) )

Q3.3 Construct the waveform at a matched filter output if the input

is a unipolar NRZ waveform that represents the binary sequence
[ 1 0 0 1 0 ].

B . Signal Detection

B.1 Generate a 10-sample binary sequence and a waveform that represents this
binary sequence in polar NRZ signalling format.

À b10 = binary(10);
À x10 = wave gen(b10,’polar nrz’,1000);
À subplot(211), waveplot(x10)

B.2 Apply x10 to a channel with 4.9 kHz bandwidth and AWGN where the
noise power is 2 W. Display the channel output waveform y10:

À y10 = channel(x10,1,2,4900);
À subplot(212), waveplot(y10)

Decode the binary sequence from the waveform y10:

bd
10 =

B.3 Apply y10 to a matched filter. Display the output waveform z10:

À z10 = match(’polar nrz’,y10);

À subplot(212), waveplot(z10)
4 Experiment 3: MATCHED FILTER AND BIT-ERROR RATE (BER) ELE 745

B.4 Let Tb be the binary data period. Sample the output of the matched filter
at k Tb , k = 1, . . . , 10 and apply the following decision rule:
½
0, if sample value > 0;
bbk =
1, if sample value < 0;

where bbk is the estimated value of the kth element of the binary sequence
b10. Apply this decision rule on the matched filter output z10:

bd
10 =

Compare your decoded sequence with the original sequence b10:

Q3.4 Comment on whether it is easier to decode the transmitted bi-

nary sequence directly from the channel output y10 or from the
matched filter output z10. If sampling instants other than those
specified above are used, the probability of making a decoding
error will be larger. Why?

C . Matched-Filter Receiver

C.1 Generate a 2,000-sample binary sequence b and a polar NRZ waveform

based on b:

À b = binary(2000);
À x = wave gen(b,’polar nrz’);

Apply x to a channel with 4.9 kHz bandwidth and channel noise power of
0.5 W. Let y be the channel output waveform.

À y = channel(x,1,0.5,4900);

C.2 Apply y to a matched filter. Display the eye diagram of the matched filter
output z.

À z = match(’polar nrz’,y);
À eye diag(z);

From the eye diagram, determine the optimum sampling instants and thresh-
old value v th for the detector to decode the transmitted binary sequence
b. Sampling instants for the matched filter output are measured with re-
spect to the time origin. For example, if the binary data period is Tb and
ELE 745 Experiment 3: MATCHED FILTER AND BIT-ERROR RATE (BER) 5

the sampling instant parameter is set to ti , then the detector will sample
the signal at ti , ti + Tb , ti + 2Tb , . . . etc.

v th = V.
sampling instant = sec.

Use v th and sampling instant in the detector which will operate on the
matched filter output. Record the resulting probability of bit error Pe
(BER) in Table 3.1.

À detect(z,v th,sampling instant,b);

σn2 [W ] Pe – empirical Pe – theoretical

0.5
1.0
1.5
2.0

Table 3.1

C.3 Repeat C.1–C.2 for channel noise power of 1, 1.5, and 2 W without display-
ing the eye diagram of the matched filter output z. Record Pe results in
Table 3.1. Remark: In Experiment 2 you have observed that the optimum
sampling instants and the threshold value are independent of channel noise
power. Therefore, you can use the optimum sampling instants determined
in part C.2 to decode the matched filter output for different channel noise
power levels.

C.4 If different sampling instants other than the optimum values are used, the
resulting BER will be larger. You can observe this by decoding the binary
sequence using values for the sampling instant parameter that are 0.9
and 0.5 times the optimal value used in part C.3.

Q3.5 Evaluate theoretical probability of bit error values for all cases
considered above and record in Table 3.1. Note that the PSD
function of a white noise process can be determined as:

No σn2
Sn (f ) = = ,
2 2 × system bandwidth

where the system bandwidth in this experiment is 4.9 kHz.

6 Experiment 3: MATCHED FILTER AND BIT-ERROR RATE (BER) ELE 745

D . Low-Pass Filter Receiver

D.1 Apply a rectangular pulse to a first-order RC-filter of 1 kHz bandwidth.

Display the filter output and measure the peak amplitude Ar :

À r = wave gen(1,’unipolar nrz’); r lpf = rc(1000,r);

À subplot(211); waveplot(r)
À subplot(212), waveplot(r lpf);

Ar = V.

D.2 Generate 2,000 samples from a zero-mean white noise sequence of 0.5 W
power. Apply the noise sequence to the RC-filter. Record the rms value of
the output noise power.

À n = gauss(0,0.5,2000);
À meansq(rc(1000,n))

σn2 = W.

Q3.6 From the results in parts D.1 and D.2, determine the ratio
Ar /σn , where Ar is the peak signal amplitude measured in D.1
and σn is the rms value of the output noise. If y in part C.1 is
applied to a receiver which uses the above RC-filter, determine
the resulting BER.

D.3 Regenerate y from part C.1. Apply y to the RC-filter. Display the eye
diagram of the output waveform z lpf.

À y = channel(x,1,0.5,4900);
À z lpf = rc(1000,y);
À clf, eye diag(z lpf);

D.4 From the eye diagram, determine the optimum sampling instant and thresh-
old value. Decode the binary sequence form z lpf.

À detect(z lpf,v th,sampling instant,b);

Compare the resulting BER with the BER evaluated in step C.2.

D.5 Repeat part D.4 for the channel noise power of 1, 1.5, and 2 W. Record
results in Table 3.2.
ELE 745 Experiment 3: MATCHED FILTER AND BIT-ERROR RATE (BER) 7

Pe
σn2 [W ]
BW = 1.0 kHz BW = 0.5 kHz
0.5
1.0
1.5
2.0

Table 3.2

D.6 Repeat parts D.3 – D.5 for a first-order RC-filter with 500 Hz bandwidth.
Record the resulting BER values in Table 3.2.

À z lpf = rc(500,y);
À eye diag(z lpf)
À detect(z lpf,v th,sampling instant,b);

Q3.7 Explain why the BER resulting from a low-pass filter of 500 Hz
bandwidth is smaller than the BER resulting from a low-pass
filter of 1 kHz bandwidth. Will the BER be further decreased
if a low-pass filter of 100 Hz bandwidth is used?