Matlab decimate vs downsample

1. What is the difference between decimation and downsampling?
2. What is Downsample Matlab?
3. What is decimate function in Matlab?
4. Why use a decimation filter?

What is the difference between decimation and downsampling?

Loosely speaking, “decimation” is the process of reducing the sampling rate. In practice, this usually implies lowpass-filtering a signal, then throwing away some of its samples. “Downsampling” is a more specific term which refers to just the process of throwing away samples, without the lowpass filtering operation.

What is Downsample Matlab?

y = downsample( x , n ) decreases the sample rate of x by keeping the first sample and then every n th sample after the first. If x is a matrix, the function treats each column as a separate sequence. y = downsample( x , n , phase ) specifies the number of samples by which to offset the downsampled sequence.

What is decimate function in Matlab?

Decimation reduces the original sample rate of a sequence to a lower rate. It is the opposite of interpolation. decimate lowpass filters the input to guard against aliasing and downsamples the result. The function uses decimation algorithms 8.2 and 8.3 from [1]. decimate creates a lowpass filter.

Why use a decimation filter?

Decimation filters help you remove the excess bandwidth and reduce the sampling frequency of the signal. Decimation filters also help you reduce the computational resources required for processing and storing the signal.