CO2035

1. Introduction of Signals and

Systems
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What is a Signal?
§ Any physical quantity that varies with time, space, or any other independent
variable or variables.
§ Examples: pressure as a function of altitude, sound as a
function of time, color as a function of space, etc.
§ Representation
▫ x(t)=cos(2πt), x(t)=4pt+t3, x(m;n)=(m+n)3
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What is a System?
§ A physical device or program that performs an operation on a signal such as
information transform and extraction.
▫ Performing an operation on a signal is called signal processing

§ Examples
▫ Analog amplifier
▫ Noise canceller
▫ Communication Channel
▫ etc.

§ Representation
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Continuous-Time vs. Discrete-Time Signals

§ Continuous-Time Signals: signal is defined for every value of time in a given
interval (a, b) where a ³ -¥ and b £ -¥

§ Examples
▫ Voltages as a function of time
▫ Height as a function of pressure
▫ Number of positron emissions as a function of time
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Continuous-Time vs. Discrete-Time Signals

§ Discrete-Time Signals: signal is defined only for certain specific values of time;
typically taken to be equally spaced points in an interval.

§ Examples
▫ Number of stocks traded per day
▫ Average income per province
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Continuous-Amplitude vs. Discrete-Amplitude Signals

§ Continuous-Amplitude Signals: signal amplitude takes on a spectrum of values
within one or more intervals.

§ Examples
▫ Color
▫ Temperature
▫ Pain-level
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Continuous-Amplitude vs. Discrete-Amplitude Signals

§ Discrete-Amplitude Signals: signal amplitude takes on values from a finite set.

§ Examples
▫ Digital image
▫ Population of a country
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Analog and Digital Signals

§ Analog Signal = Continuous-Time + Continuous-Amplitude
§ Digital Signal = Discrete-Time + Discrete-Amplitude
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Analog and Digital Signals

§ Analog signals are fundamentally significant because we must interface with
the real world which is analog by nature.

§ Digital signals are important because they facilitate the use of digital signal
processing (DSP) systems, which have practical and performance advantages
for several applications.
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Analog and Digital Systems

§ Analog system =
analog signal input + analog signal output
▫ Advantages: easy to interface to real world, do not need A/D or D/A converters,
speed not dependent on clock rate.

§ Digital system =
digital signal input + digital signal output
▫ Advantages: re-configurability using software, greater control over
accuracy/resolution, predictable and reproducible behavior.
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Analog and Digital Systems

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Multichannel and Multidimensional Signals

§ Multichannel Signals
▫ Signal is generated by multiple sources and usually represented in vector form.
▫ Example
– ECG – ElectroCardioGram
– EEG – ElectroEncephaloGram
– Color Image - RGB

§ Multidimensional Signal
▫ Signal is a function of M independent variables (M > 1).
▫ Example
– Image: ~ (x, y)
– Black/White TV Image: ~ (x, y, t)

§ Signal is multichannel and multidimensional

▫ Color TV Image
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Deterministic vs. Random Signals

§ Deterministic signal
▫ Any signal that can be uniquely described by an explicit mathematical expression, a
table of data, or a well-defined rule.
▫ past, present and future values of the signal are known precisely without any
uncertainty.

§ Random signal
▫ Any signal that lacks a unique and explicit mathematical expression and thus
evolves in time in an unpredictable manner.
▫ It may not be possible to accurately describe the signal.
▫ The deterministic model of the signal may be too complicated to be of use.
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What is a “pure frequency” signal?

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Continuous-time Sinusoids
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Continuous-time Sinusoids: Frequency

§ Smaller F, larger T

§ Larger F, smaller T
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Discrete-time Sinusoids

§ x(n) is periodic only if its frequency f is a rational number.

§ Radian frequencies separated by an integer multiple of 2π are identical.

§ Lowest rate of oscillation is achieved for w=2kπ and highest rate of oscillation is
achieved for w=(2k + 1)π, for k Î Z.
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Complex Exponentials

§ Continuous-time

§ Discrete-time:
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Periodicity: Continuous-time
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Periodicity: Discrete-time
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Example 1

§ The fundamental period is 12 which corresponds to k = 1 envelope cycles.

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Example 2

§ The fundamental period is 31 which corresponds to k = 4 envelope cycles.

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Example 3
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Uniqueness: Continuous-time
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Analog-to-Digital Conversion

§ Sampler
▫ Sampling
§ Quantizer
▫ Quantization
§ Coder
▫ Coding
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Analog-to-Digital Conversion: Sampling

§ Sampling
▫ Conversion from continuous-time to discrete-time by taking “samples” at discrete
time instants.
▫ E.g., uniform sampling: x(n)=xa(nT) where T is the sampling period and n € Z.
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Sampling Theorem
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Example
§ Do sampling x1(t) and x2(t) with sampling frequency Fs=100Hz
▫ x1(t) = 3cos(20πt)
▫ x2(t) = 3cos(220πt)

x1(t) x2(t)

Sampling

x1(n) = 3cos([20/100]πn) x2(n) = 3cos([220/100]πn)

= 3cos(πn/5) = 3cos([11/5]πn)
= 3cos([(10+1)/5]πn)

x1(n) =3cos(πn/5)
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Aliasing
§ What is aliasing?
x0(t) = ACos(2πF0t + θ)
xk(t) = ACos(2πFkt + θ) where Fk = F0 + kFs (k € Z)

If xk(t) is sampled by Fs, the sampling result will be same as x0(t)

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Analog-to-Digital Conversion: Quantization

§ Quantization
▫ Conversion from discrete-time continuous-amplitude signal to a discrete-time
discrete-amplitude signal.
▫ Quantization error: eq(n) = xq(n) − x(n) for all n € Z.
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Analog-to-Digital Conversion: Quantization

§ Quantization
▫ Conversion from discrete-time continuous-amplitude signal to a discrete-time
discrete-amplitude signal.
▫ Methods: rounding or truncated.
▫ Notes:
– L the number of quantization levels
– Ymax, Ymin: the max and min value of the signal
– ∆: quantization step

∆ = (Ymax - Ymin)/(L–1)
Quantization error:
– Rounding: | eq(n) | <= ∆/2
– Truncated: | eq(n) | < ∆
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Analog-to-Digital Conversion: Coding

§ Coding
▫ Representation of each discrete-amplitude xq(n) by a b-bit binary sequence.
– 2b ³ L Þ b ³ ceil(log2L)
▫ E.g., if for any n, xq(n) € {0; 1;…; 6; 7}, then the coder may use the following
mapping to code the quantized amplitude.
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Analog-to-Digital Conversion: Coding

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Digital-to-Analog Conversion
§ To convert digital signal to analog signal.

§ Common interpolation approaches

▫ Bandlimited interpolation
▫ Zero-order hold
▫ Linear interpolation
▫ Higher-order interpolation techniques
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Exercise
1§ A given signal 𝑥 𝑡 = cos !"⁄ − s𝑖𝑛 !"⁄ + 3cos !" + ! , determine
# $ % &
a. Sampling frequency Fs that satisfies the sampling theorem.
b. x(n) using Fs determined in (a)
c. The number of quantization levels L of x(n) with D=0.1
d. The binary sequence corresponding to each quantized value of x(n). (Using truncated method for
quantization)

---------------------------------------
2
§ A given signal 𝑥 𝑡 = 3cos 600𝜋𝑡 + 2 s𝑖𝑛 1800𝜋𝑡 , determine
a. Sampling frequency Fs that satisfies the sampling theorem.
b. x(n) using Fs determined in (a)
c. Quantization error if using 1024 quantization levels
d. The binary sequence corresponding to each quantized value of x(n). (Using rounding method for
quantization)
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Exercise
3§ Determine which of the following sinusoids are periodic and compute their
fundamental period.
!"# &'#
▫ cos 0.01πn cos π cos 3πn sin 3n sin(π )
$"% $"

4§ Consider the following analog signal

x) (t) = 3sin(100πt)

▫ The signal 𝑥( (t) is sampled with a sampling rate Fs = 300 samples/s. Determine the
discrete signal x(n) and determine the periodic property of x(n). If x(n) is periodic
signal, determine the frequency and period of x(n). Then, compute the sample
values in one period of x(n).
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References
§ Chapter 1 - Textbook

§ Lecture Notes – Digital Signal Processing

▫ Professor Deepa Kundur (University of Toronto)
▫ http://www.comm.utoronto.ca/~dkundur/course/ece-455-digital-signal-
processing/#lectures