TIME-SERIES AUTOREGRESSION

Given y_t and y_t-1, you might like to predict y_t+1. The prediction could be a scaled sum or difference of y_t and y_t-1. This is called ``autoregression'' because a signal is regressed on itself. To find the scale factors you would optimize the fitting goal below, for the prediction filter (f₁,f₂):

 

$$\bold 0 \quad \approx \quad \bold r \eq \left[ \begin{array... ..._2 \\ y_3 \\ y_4 \\ y_5 \\ y_6 \end{array} \right]$$ (9)

(In practice, of course the system of equations would be much taller, and perhaps somewhat wider.) A typical row in the matrix (9) says that $y_{t+1} \approx y_t f_1 + y_{t-1} f_2$hence the description of f as a ``prediction'' filter. The error in the prediction is simply the residual. Define the residual to have opposite polarity and merge the column vector into the matrix, so you get  

$$\left[ \begin{array} {c} 0 \\ 0 \\ 0 \\ 0 \\ 0... ... \begin{array} {c} 1 \\ -f_1 \\ -f_2 \end{array} \right]$$ (10)

which is a standard form for autoregressions and prediction error.

Multiple reflections are predictable. It is the unpredictable part of a signal, the prediction residual, that contains the primary information. The output of the filter (1,-f₁, -f₂) = (a₀, a₁, a₂) is the unpredictable part of the input. This filter is a simple example of a ``prediction-error'' (PE) filter.

It is one member of a family of filters called ``error filters.''

The error-filter family are filters with one coefficient constrained to be unity and various other coefficients constrained to be zero. Otherwise, the filter coefficients are chosen to have minimum power output. Names for various error filters follow:

$(1, a_1,a_2,a_3, \cdots ,a_n)$ prediction-error (PE) filter    
$(1, 0, 0, a_3,a_4,\cdots ,a_n)$		gapped PE filter with a gap 
$(a_{-m}, \cdots, a_{-2}, a_{-1}, 1, a_1, a_2, a_3, \cdots ,a_n)$ interpolation-error (IE) filter