Iterated filter banks with rational rate changes connection with discrete wavelet transforms

Some properties of two-band filter banks with rational rate changes (“rational filter banks”) are first reviewed. Focusing then on iterated rational filter banks, compactly supported limit functions are obtained, in the same manner as previously done for dyadic schemes, allowing a characterization of such filter banks. These functions are carefully studied and the properties they share with the dyadic case are highlighted. They are experimentally observed to verify a “shift property” (strictly verified in the dyadic ease) up to an error which can be made arbitrarily small when their regularity increases. In this case, the high-pass outputs of an iterated filter bank can be very close to samples of a discrete wavelet transform with the same rational dilation factor. Straightforward extension of the formalism of multiresolution analysis is also made. Finally, it is shown that if one is ready to put up with the loss of the shift property, rational iterated filter banks can be used in the same manner as if they were dyadic filter banks, with the advantage that rational dilation factors can be chosen closer to 1