LINEAR AND CIRCULAR CONVOLUTION

Linear and circular convolution are fundamentally different operations.

Linear and circular convolution are fundamentally different operations. However, there are conditions under which linear and circular convolution are equivalent. Establishing this equivalence has important implications. For two vectors, x and y, the circular convolution is equal to the inverse discrete Fourier transform (DFT) of the product of the vectors' DFTs. Knowing the conditions under which linear and circular convolution are equivalent allows you to use the DFT to efficiently compute linear convolutions.