On the statistical decorrelation of the wavelet packet coefficients of a band-limited wide-sense stationary random process

This paper is a contribution to the analysis of the statistical correlation of the wavelet packet coefficients resulting from the decomposition of a random process, stationary in the wide-sense, whose power spectral density is bounded with support in [−π, π]. Consider two quadrature mirror filters (QMF) that depend on a parameter r, such that these filters tend almost everywhere to the Shannon QMF when r increases. The parameter r is called the order of the QMF under consideration. The order of the Daubechies filters (resp. the Battle-Lemarié filters) is the number of vanishing moments of the wavelet function (resp. the spline order of the scaling function). Given any decomposition path in the wavelet packet tree, the wavelet packet coefficients are proved to decorrelate for every packet associated with a large enough resolution level, provided that the QMF order is large enough and above a value that depends on this wavelet packet. Another consequence of our derivation is that, when the coefficients associated with a given wavelet packet are approximately decorrelated, the value of the autocorrelation function of these coefficients at lag 0 is close to the value taken by the power spectral density of the decomposed process at a specific point. This specific point depends on the path followed in the wavelet packet tree to attain the wavelet packet under consideration. Some simulations highlight the good quality of the “whitening” effect that can be obtained in practical cases.