Comparison of optimal and local search methods for designing finite wordlength FIR digital filters

This paper presents a comparison between an optimal (branch-and-bound) algorithm and a suboptimal (loca search) algorithm for the design of finite wordlength finite-impulse-response (FIR) digital filters. Experimental results are described for 11 examples of length 15 to 35. We conclude that when computer resources are not available for the optimal method, it is still worth applying the local search method to the filter with rounded coefficients.