Optimal filtering is a means of adaptive extraction of a weak desired signal in the presence of noise and interfering signals. Optimal filters normally are free from stability
problems. There are simple operational checks on an optimal filter when it is being used that indicate whether it is operating correctly. Optimal filters are
probably easier to make adaptive to parameter changes than suboptimal filters.The goal of optimal filtering is to design a filter that acts on the output
of the generalized plant and optimizes the transfer matrix from w to the filtered output.
Consider the continuous-time generalized LTI plant with minimal states-space realization

where it is assumed that
is Hurwitz.
The matrices needed as inputs are
.
An
-optimal filter is designed to minimize the
norm of
in following equation.

To ensure that
has a finite
norm, it is required that
, which results in
Solve for
,
and
that minimize
subject to
.

The filter is recovered by
and
.
MATLAB code of
Optimal filter