Principles of Signals and Systems

Prof. Aditya K. Jagannatham

Department of Electrical Engineering
Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur

Lecture – 19
Laplace Transform – Convolution, Rational Function – Poles and Zeros, Properties
of ROC

Keywords: Convolution, Rational Function – Poles and Zeros, Properties of ROC

Hello, welcome to another module in this massive open online course. So we are looking
at the properties of the Laplace transform, let us continue our discussion.

(Refer Slide Time: 00:26)

So we want to look at the convolution between two signals. So consider two signals x1(t)
with Laplace transform X1(s) and with ROC R1 and x2(t) with Laplace transform X2(s)
and ROC R2. Then we consider x1(t) convolved with x2(t) and we need to find out what
is the Laplace transform of x1(t) convolved with x2(t). So this can be expressed as
 

  x ( ) x (t   )d e
 st
1 2 dt . So the inside integral is that of convolution and the outer
 

integral is taking the Laplace transform of the convolution. And now this can be
simplified by modifying the order of integration as follows.
(Refer Slide Time: 02:44)

 

 x ( )d  x (t   )e
 st
So this can be simplified as 1 2 dt which can be again written as
 

 

 x1 ( )d e s  x (t  )e dt . Now set t    t  dt  dt which implies the integral

 s ( t  )
2
 

 

 x1 ( )e s d  x (t )e
 st
becomes 2 dt and this is basically X1(s) times X2(s).
 

(Refer Slide Time: 05:35)

So when we convolve two signals the output is given by the product of their Laplace
transforms.

(Refer Slide Time: 06:17)

So convolution in time is equivalent to taking the product in the transform domain that is
the Laplace domain or basically the s domain. This property helps easily evaluate the
convolution of two signals because rather than evaluating convolution which is slightly
difficult to evaluate, if one has knowledge of the Laplace transforms of the two signals
then the Laplace transform of the convolution can be readily evaluated by the
multiplication of the Laplace transform of these two signals.

So as a result of that naturally it is easier to look at the output of an LTI system given an
input signal because the output is nothing but the convolution between the input signal
and the impulse response of the LTI system.
(Refer Slide Time: 08:45)

So as a result the Laplace transform is a very convenient tool in both signal processing
and communication in several areas such as control systems, instrumentation etc., where
one needs to study the behavior of system, analyze the behavior of systems, examine the
behavior or the output of a given system for different input signals and also analyze the
impact of the system for different signals, characterize the interaction between various
signals and systems etc.

(Refer Slide Time: 10:11)

So let us now move on to another topic in the Laplace transform which is that of the
poles and zeros. Now consider X(s) to be a rational function of s so it is the form of
numerator polynomial divided by denominator polynomial, so this is going to be of the
a0 s m  a1s m1  ....  am
form X ( s)  .
b0 s n  b1s n 1  ....  bn

(Refer Slide Time: 12:02)

a0 ( s  z1 )( s  z2 )....(s  zm )
This can be again written as  where these roots of the
b0 ( s  p1 )( s  p2 )....(s  pn )
numerator polynomial that is zk for 1  k  m these are known as the zeros of the transfer
function and the roots of the denominator polynomials pk are known as the poles of the
transfer function.
(Refer Slide Time: 13:43)

So this is known as a proper rational function if m  n where m is the degree of

numerator polynomial and n is the degree of denominator polynomial and if m  n this
implies an improper rational function.

(Refer Slide Time: 15:41)

Now one thing to keep in mind is that poles of X(s) cannot lie in ROC, since X(s) is
undefined at the poles. So since X(s) evaluates to infinity at the poles, poles cannot lie in
the ROC. Let us take an example to understand this better.
(Refer Slide Time: 16:30)

3
4( s  )
4s  3 4
So I have X ( s)  2  . So this can be again written as
2s  6s  4 2( s  2)( s  1)
3
2( s  )
 4 .
( s  2)( s  1)

(Refer Slide Time: 17:24)

 3
And now you can see here that the zeros z1   and poles p1  2, p2  1 and ROC
4
cannot include these poles. Now the degree of numerator polynomial m = 1, the degree
of denominator polynomial n = 2, so you have m < n implies this is a proper rational
function.

(Refer Slide Time: 18:57)

Let us look at the some of the properties of the ROC. The first property as we have
already seen is that the ROC does not contain poles. For a finite duration signal, that is
x(t) = 0 for t < t1 or t > t2, implies that signal is non-zero only for t1  t  t2 , so for such
signals, the ROC is typically the entire s plane.
(Refer Slide Time: 21:08)

Now a right handed signal implies x(t )  0  t  t1   . So this is non-zero only for

t  t1 .

(Refer Slide Time: 22:24)

For a right handed signal the ROC is of the form Re s   max where  max equals the

maximum of the real part of the poles of X(s). This implies that the ROC is the half plane
to right of the vertical line given by Re s   max .
(Refer Slide Time: 24:10)

Here all the other poles can only be to the left of this line given by Re s   max and of

course this line itself is not included in the ROC.

(Refer Slide Time: 25:54)

So let us take an example, consider x(t )  e2t u(t )  e3t u (t ) and this is a right handed
signal and it exists only for. If you look at the Laplace transform of this we have
1 1
X ( s)   and the poles are s= -2, -3.
s2 s3
(Refer Slide Time: 27:06)

Now  max  2 and therefore the ROC is Re s  2 .

(Refer Slide Time: 27:24)

If you plot this, this is your s plane, this is the line  max  2 and somewhere here you

have - 3 and the ROC is Re s  2 , so all the other poles lie on the left of this line and

so ROC is to the right of all poles and in fact it does not include this line.
(Refer Slide Time: 28:46)

Now let us look at the case of a left-handed signal. So x(t )  0 for t  t2   . Its ROC is

of the form Re s   min where  min is the minimum of the real part of the poles of X(s).

(Refer Slide Time: 30:12)

So ROC is the region to the left of all poles of X(s).

(Refer Slide Time: 30:58)

And this can be illustrated as shown in slide.

(Refer Slide Time: 32:52)

Let us take a look at a simple example to understand this. Consider the signal
x(t )  e2t u(t )  e3t u(t ) . Now this is a left-handed signal and this is non-zero only for
1 1
t  0 . The Laplace transform of this signal is given as X ( s)   and from this
s 2 s 3
you can see that the poles of this system equals 2, 3 and clearly you can see that
 min  2 .
(Refer Slide Time: 33:00)

Therefore the ROC of this left-handed signal is of the form Re s  2 .

(Refer Slide Time: 33:24)

Now if we plot this, this is the pole which is 2 and this is the line Re s  2 and the ROC

is to the left of this line and you can see all poles have to lie only to the right so ROC has
to lie to the left of all the poles of X(s). So we will stop this module here and continue
with other aspects on the subsequent modules. Thank you very much.