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Volume 1, Issue 3, September October 2012
ISSN 2278-6856

Optimization of FIR Filters Design using

Genetic Algorithm
1

Pardeep Kaur, 2Simarpreet Kaur

1,2

Punjab Technical University, Baba Banda Singh Bahadur Engineering College,

Fatehgarh Sahib 140407, Punjab, India

Abstract: Digital filters are an essential part of DSP.

In fact, their extraordinary performance is one of the
key reasons that DSP has become so popular. The
purpose of the filters is to allow some frequencies to
pass unaltered, while completely blocking others. The
digital filters are mainly used for two purposes:
separation of signals that have been combined, and
restoration of signals that have been distorted in some
way. In this present work, FIR filter is designed using
Genetic Algorithm (GM) and its comparison is done
with Blackman, Parks McClellan in MATLAB. The
comparisons are done to improve the magnitude
response, phase variation and phase delay. The response
is studied by keeping values of fixed order, crossover
probability and mutation probability. Out of all three
techniques, GA offers a quick, simple and automatic
method of designing low pass FIR filters that are very
close to optimum in terms of magnitude response,
frequency response and in terms of phase variation. FIR
filter design using Hamming window provides good
magnitude response but transition bandwidth is very
high, large phase deviation and lack of control of
critical frequencies
p and
s. To overcome this
problem, Parks McClellan is used but as the order of
filter is increased, this method is not suitable.
Therefore, to solve all these problems, GA is used. With
the help of GA, the numbers of operations in design
process are reduced and coefficient calculation is easily
realized.
Keywords: Parks McClellan, DSP, FIR, GA, Blackman

1. INTRODUCTION
Digital Signal Processing (DSP) is one of the most
powerful technologies that are shaping science and
engineering in the twenty-first century. Revolutionary
changes have already been made in a broad range of
fields: communications, medical imaging, radar and
sonar, and high fidelity music reproduction, to name just
a few. Each of these areas has developed a comprehensive
DSP technology, with its own algorithms, mathematics,
and specialized techniques. Analog (electronic) filters can
be used for these tasks, as these are cheap, fast, and have
a large dynamic range in both amplitude and frequency;
however, digital filters are vastly superior in the level of
performance. In this work, a type of digital filter i.e., FIR
filter is used to separate one band of frequencies from
another. The primary attribute of FIR filters is their
Volume 1, Issue 3, September October 2012

stability. This is because they are carried out by

convolution rather than recursion. FIR filters are linear
phase filters and both phase delay and group delays are
constant in these filters [1].
1.2 Filter and design techniques
Filtering is a process by which the frequency spectrum of
a signal can be modified, reshaped or manipulated to
achieve some desired objectives. These are as under [2]:
To eliminate noise that may contaminate the signal, to
remove signal distortion which may be due to
imperfection in the transmission channel, to resolve the
signal into its frequency component, to demodulate the
signal which was modulated at the transmitter side, to
convert digital signals into analog signals and to limit the
bandwidth of a signal.
1.3 Finite Impulse Response (FIR) Filter
A Finite Impulse Response (FIR) digital filter is one
whose impulse response is of finite duration. The impulse
response is "finite" because there is no feedback in the
filter. If we put in an impulse (that is, a single "1" sample
followed by many "0" samples), zeroes will eventually
come out after the "1" sample has made its way in the
delay line past all the coefficients.
FIR (Finite Impulse Response) filters are implemented
using a finite number "n" delay taps on a delay line and
"n" computation coefficients to compute the algorithm
(filter) function. The above structure is non-recursive, a
repetitive delay-and-add format, and is most often used to
produce FIR filters. This structure depends upon each
sample of new and present value data. The number of taps
(delays) and values of the computation coefficients
(h0 ,h1,...hn ) are selected to "weight" the data being
shifted down the delay line to create the desired
amplitude response of the filter. In this configuration,
there are no feedback paths to cause instability. The
calculation of coefficients is not constrained to particular
values and can be used to implement filter functions that
do not have a linear system equivalent. More taps
increase the steepness of the filter roll-off while
increasing calculation time (delay) and for high order
filters, limiting bandwidth.
This can be stated mathematically as:

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Volume 1, Issue 3, September October 2012
ISSN 2278-6856

Where
system.

= Response of Linear Time Invariant (LTI)

= Input signal
= Unit sample response
N = No. of signal samples
FIR filters are simple to design and they are guaranteed to
be bounded input-bounded output (BIBO) stable. By
designing the filter taps to be symmetrical about the
center tap position, an FIR filter can be guaranteed to
have linear phase response. This is a desirable property
for many applications such as music and video
processing.
1.4 Infinite Impulse Response (IIR) Filter
IIR filter is one whose impulse response is infinite [3].
Impulse response is infinite because there is feedback in
the filter. This permits the approximation of many
waveforms or transfer functions that can be expressed as
an infinite recursive series. These implementations are
referred to as Infinite Impulse Response (IIR) filters. The
functions are infinite recursive because they use
previously calculated values in future calculations to
feedback in hardware systems.
IIR filters can be mathematically represented as:

Where
is the kth feedback tap . M is the number of
feed-back taps in the IIR filter and N is the number of
feed-forward taps. IIR Filters are useful for high-speed
designs because they typically require a lower number of
multiply compared to FIR filters. IIR filters have lower
side lobes in stop band as compared to FIR filters.
Unfortunately, IIR filters do not have linear phase and
they can be unstable if not designed properly. IIR filters
are very sensitive to filter coefficient quantization errors
that occur due to use of a finite number of bits to
represent the filter coefficients. One way to reduce this
sensitivity is to use a cascaded design. That is, the IIR
filter is implemented as a series of lower-order IIR filters
as opposed to one high-order.

5.

Round off noise can be made small by employing

non-recursive technique of realization.

1.6 The Magnitude and phase response of the FIR

filter:
We know that DTFT of a finite sequence h (n) is given by
[4]

H (e j )

DTFT h(n)
M-1

or H (e j )

h(n)e

-j nT

n 0

H (e j ) e j

or H (e )

Now magnitude and phase response can be expressed as

under:
Magnitude response

H (e j

M( )

{Re[H (e )]

Or

1
2 2

Im[ H (e )] }

And phase response

(

ta n

-1

Im

H (e

Re

H (e

)
)

The phase and group delay is given by

and

d (
d

, respectively.

Linear phase filters are those filters in which the phase

delay and group are constant i.e., independent of
frequency [4].

1.5 Advantages of FIR over IIR Filter

FIR filters have the following advantages over the IIR
filters
1.

FIR filters are linear phase filters, which is useful in

speech processing.

1.7 STABILITY OF FIR FILTERS

FIR filters are inherently stable filters. The difference
equation of FIR filter of length M is given as
M 1

bk .x(n k)

y ( n)
k 0

2.
3.
4.

FIR filters are always stable because all the poles are
within the unit circle.
The designing methods are generally linear for FIR
filters.
The start-up transitions have finite duration in FIR
filters.

Volume 1, Issue 3, September October 2012

The coefficients bk is related to unit sample as

1,
h( n)

n 1

2,

n 0,2

0,

otherwise

Difference equation can be expanded as

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Volume 1, Issue 3, September October 2012
ISSN 2278-6856

y n bx
0 n b1 x n 1 bx
2 n 2

bM1x n M 1

The BIBO stability states that if the system produces

bounded output for bounded input, then the system is a
stable system [5].Here, it is observed that the coefficients
bk are stable. Then the output is bounded if the input is
bounded. This means that FIR filter produces bounded
output for bounded input. Therefore, FIR filters are
always stable systems [4].
1.8 TYPES OF FIR FILTERS

1. Symmetric filters The unit sample response of FIR

filter is symmetric if it satisfies the following
equation
n

, n

0 , 1,

,M

2. Antisymmetric filters The unit sample response is

Antisymmetric if it satisfies the following equation
h

, n

0 , 1,

,M

So we can say that for linear phase FIR filter,

h n

h M

1 n , n

0, 1,

3. MATLAB AS SIMULATION TOOL

3.1 FILTER DESIGN FLOW
The design flow is highlighted in figure 3 below. Here are
the steps that we follow:
1. Given set of design specification, program them into
MATLAB.

There are two types of FIR filters

4. REPLACEMENT: During the last step,

individuals from the old population are killed
and replaced by the new ones.
The algorithm is stopped when the population converges
toward the optimal solution.

,M

2. Create an ideal magnitude response of the desired

filter.
3. Use the order estimation function provided by
MALTAB for each type of filter.
4. Design the GA FIR filter using MATLAB filter
design function.
5. Compare the magnitude response of our design with
the ideal filter.

The above condition should be satisfied.

2. DESIGNING TECHNIQUES OF FIR

FILTERS
There are essentially three well-known methods for FIR
filter design namely:
(1) The window method
(2) The frequency sampling technique
(3) Optimal filter design methods
2.1 Optimal Design of FIR Filter using Genetic
Algorithm
The genetic algorithm loops over an iteration process to
make the population evolve [10]. Each consists of the
following steps:
1. SELECTION: The first step consists in selecting
individuals for reproduction. This selection is
done randomly with a probability depending on
the relative fitness of the individuals so that best
ones are often chosen for reproduction than poor
ones.
2. REPRODUCTION: In the second step, offspring
are bred by the selected individuals. For
generating new chromosomes, the algorithm can
use both recombination and mutation.
3. EVALUATION: Then the fitness of the new
chromosomes is evaluated.

Volume 1, Issue 3, September October 2012

Figure 3 Filter Design Flow

The method applied through MATLAB is to design a low
pass FIR filter with ideal magnitude response, zero phase
and small phase variation.
Consider that a low pass FIR filter is to be designed with
the initial conditions described in Table 3. The objective
is to draw and compare the magnitude response, pole zero
response of FIR filter using the hamming window, ParksMcClellan and GA.
Table 3 Initial Conditions for Designing a Filter.
Filter type
Low Pass
Order of filter
31
No. of sample point
65
Stop band frequency(

Pass band frequency ( p)

Population Number
Generation Number(G)
Crossover Probability(Pc)
Mutation Probability(Pm)

0.458
0.341
100
30
0.6
0.01
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Volume 1, Issue 3, September October 2012
ISSN 2278-6856
Ideal Low pass filter passes all the signals that are below
the cut off frequency and stop all others. Figure 4 shows
that there is flat pass band below pass band frequency
(

= 0.341) and Flat attenuation band above stop band

frequency(

=0.4580).
Figure 6 Phase Response

5. COMPARISONS OF BLACKMAN
WINDOW, PARKS MCCLELLAN AND GA
TECHNIQUES FOR FILTER DESIGNING
Figure 4 Magnitude Response

4. SIMULATION RESULTS FOR GENETIC

ALGORITHM
Table 4 Filter Coefficients of GA

In ideal case there should be flat pass band, flat stop band
and a very small transition band width. Fig 7 shows that
in case of
1.) Blackman Window: there is a flat pass band, large
ripples in stop band and transition band width is very
large.
2.) Parks McClellan: there are small ripples in pass
band, very large ripples in stop band and transition
band width is very small.
3.) Genetic Algorithm: there are small ripples in pass
band, very small ripples in stop band and transition
band width is very small.
Hence GA has relatively better Magnitude response in
comparison to Blackman Window and Parks McClellan
TECHNIQUES

Magnitude Response
GA is an optimizing method to design an FIR filter.
Figure 5 shows that its magnitude response is
approximately same as ideal response. But it has small
amount of ripples in the pass band and very small in stop
band. The transition bandwidth is near to optimal
method.

Figure 7 Magnitude Comparison

Phase Response
Phase response is the relationship between the phase of a
sinusoidal input and the output signal passing through
any device that accepts input and produces an output
signal, such as filter. Figure 8 shows that phase response
of GA as it approaches towards the zeros. Hence phase
response of GA is much better in comparison with other
two techniques.

Figure 5 GA Magnitude Responses

Phase Response
Phase response of FIR filter designing by GA approaches
towards zero. Hence there is very small phase change.
Volume 1, Issue 3, September October 2012

Figure 8 Comparisons between Phase Responses

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Volume 1, Issue 3, September October 2012
ISSN 2278-6856
6. SUMMARY
In this present work, FIR filter is designed using GA and
its comparison is done with Blackman and Parks
McClellan in MATLAB. The comparisons are done to
improve the magnitude response, phase variation and
phase delay. The response is studied by keeping values of
fixed order, crossover probability and mutation
probability. Out of all three techniques GA offers a
quick, simple and automatic method of designing low
pass FIR filters that are very close to optimum in terms of
magnitude response, frequency response and in terms of
phase variation. FIR filter design using Blackman
window provide good magnitude response but transition
bandwidth is very high, large phase deviation and lack of
control of critical frequencies
p and
s. To overcome
this problem, Parks McClellan is used. But as the order of
the filter increases, this method is not suitable. Therefore,
to solve all these problems, GA is used. With the help of
GA, the number of operations in design process is
reduced and coefficient calculation is easily realized.
7. FUTURE WORK
The work has been restricted to low pass filters, it
could be extended to high pass, band pass and
band stop filters.
Some zeros are lying outside the unit circles.
Therefore there is small phase variation. In
future work they can lie inside the circle.

REFERENCES
[1] Rabiner Lawrence R., Techniques for Designing
Finite-Duration Impulse-Response Digital Filters,
IEEE Transactions on Communication Technology,
Vol. com -19, April 1971
[2] McClellan James H. and Thomas W. Parks, A
Unified Approach to the Design of Optimum FIR
Linear-Phase Digital Filters, IEEE proceedingcircuit theory, Vol. 20, pp. 697 701, Nov 1973.
[3] L. R. Rabiner, M.T. Dolan and J.F. Kaiser, Some
Comparisons between FIR and IIR Digital Filters,
Vol- 53, Feb.1973.
[4] Selesnick Ivan W. and C. Sidney Burrus, Some
Exchange Algorithms Complementing the ParksMcClellan Program for Filter Design, Oct 1995.
[5] Rabiner L.R., Mcclellan J.H., Parks T.W, FIR
Digital Filter Design Techniques using Weighted
Chebyshev Approximation, Proceedings of the
IEEE, Vol. 63, pp. 595-610, 1975
[6] Speake T.C. and R.M. Mersereau, A Comparison
of Different Window Formulations for TwoDimensional FIR Filter Design, IEEE proceeding
Acoustics, Speech, and Signal Processing, Vol. 4, pp.
5-8, Apr 1979.
[7] Rabiner L.R. and B. Gold, Theory and Application
of Digital Signal Processing, Prentice-Hall,
Englewood Cliffs, NJ, 1975.
Volume 1, Issue 3, September October 2012

[8] Jones Douglas L., Parks-McClellan FIR Filter

Design, pp. 1-9, Feb 2007.
[9] Kaya Turgay and Melih Cevdet Ince, The FIR
filter Design by Using Window Parameters
Calculated with GA, IEEE proceeding- soft
computing, pp. 1-4, Sept 2009
[10] Ajoy Kumar Dey, A Method of Genetic
Algorithm (GA) for FIR Filter Construction, Vol. 1,
pp. 87-90, Dec 2010.
[11] Kaur Gurleen and Ranjit Kaur, The Design of
Recursive Digital Filters Using Multiobjective
Genetic Algorithm, Vol. 3, pp 5614-5621, July
2011.
[12] McClellan and Parks, A Personal History of the
Parks-McClellan Algorithm, IEEE ProceedingSignal Processing, Vol. 22, pp. 82-86, March 2005
Pardeep Kaur received the
B.Tech degree in Electronics
and
Communication
engineering from Institute of
Engineering and Technology,
Bhaddal in 2008 and Pursuing
M.tech in Electronics and
Communication
engineering
From BBSBEC, Fatehgarh
Sahib, Punjab. She has a
teaching experience of 3 years and 6 months. She is
presently working as a Lecturer in Electronics &
Instrumentation Engineering Department, Doaba Group
of Colleges, Kharar (Mohali, Punjab).
Simarpreet Kaur has received
her M-Tech and B-Tech degrees
from Punjab Technical University,
India in 2008 and 2001,
respectively. She worked as a
lecturer in Punjab Engineering
College, Chandigarh, India for
several years. She is currently
working as an Assistant Professor
in Baba Banda Singh Bahadur Engineering College,
Fatehgarh Sahib, Punjab. She is guiding many M-Tech
thesis. Her research interests are in the fields of
broadband communications, QOS and resource
management of IP based wireless networks, performance
analysis of 3G and 4G networks, wireless sensor networks
and Labview.

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