Wigner Distribution Function: Relation to Short-Term Spectral Estimation, Smoothing, and Performance in Noise.

Abstract

The properties and behavior of the Wigner Distribution Function (WDF) are investigated both analytically and by means of a number of simple informative examples. The lack of local temporal averaging when obtaining the instantaneous correlation function, and the lack of weighting the longer delay values when transforming to the instantaneous spectrum, are shown to be the causes of the deleterious interference effects that are inherent to the WDF. The equivalence of short-term spectral estimation to the smoothed WDF offers an attractive alternative with guaranteed positive distribution values and no interference effects. The performance of a processor which estimates the WDF of a signal waveform in the presence of additive noise is investigated in terms of the output mean, bias, and variance. Dependence on filtering the input and time-weighting is allowed and included in the analysis. Numerical application to a particular example is carried out. Keywords: Wigner distribution function; Short term spectral estimation; Smoothing; Noise performance; Linear frequency; Modulation; Interference effects; Gaussian amplitude modulation; Marginals; Moments; Spread of distribution; Positive distributions; Ambiguity function.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Feb 16, 1988
Accession Number
ADA193865

Entities

People

  • Albert H. Nuttall

Organizations

  • Naval Underwater Systems Center

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Air Platforms

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Additives (Chemicals)
  • Amplitude Modulation
  • Differential Equations
  • Distribution Functions
  • Equations
  • Filtration
  • Frequency
  • Frequency Modulation
  • Frequency Shift
  • Integrals
  • Modulation
  • Peak Values
  • Plastic Explosives
  • Security
  • Spectra
  • Two Dimensional
  • Waveforms

Fields of Study

  • Engineering

Readers

  • Radio communications and signal processing.
  • Statistical inference.