Signals and systems

M. C. Fernando Pea Campos

Introduction

Signal: A physical quantity which is function of one

or more variables

Signal classification

Multi-dimensional: A signal dependent on two or

more variables
B/W image

Multi-channel signal: A signal with two or more

sources or sensors
Position of a object on a 3D space

Multi-channel multi-dimensional
Color image

Signal classification

Continuous signals: Defined within a continuous

interval of the dependent variable.
Discrete signals: Defined only on discrete values of
the dependent values (with uniform or non-uniform
distribution).
Continuous valued signals: Can take any value
(infinite possibilities) within a interval.
Discrete valued signals: Can take values only from
a countable set.

Signal classification

Signal classification

Deterministic signals: It is uniquely determined by a

well-defined process, e.g., mathematical
expression, table, etc.
Random signals: Its value cannot be predicted
ahead due to its complex nature or unknown origin
Voice signals

Systems

System: An entity that transforms a signal or a set

of signals. The system can be in continuous time or
discrete time depending on the nature of its I/O

Systems classification

Lineal: Fulfills the superposition principle

(homogeneity and additivity)
If and , then

Non-lineal: Either homogeneity or additivity are nor

met

Systems classification

Time-invariant: It keeps the same structure or

response over the time:
If
then
Time-variant system: Invariant condition is not met

Systems

Bounded input bounded output stability: For every

bounded input the output is bounded
If
then
For values and finite

Systems

Memoryless systems: The output at a given instant

depends only on the input at that moment

Memory system: The output at a given instant

depends on the input values on a time interval

Continuous time frequency

Frequency: Relates the periodic movement or

oscillation with sinusoid-like functions
For real valued signals

For complex valued signals

Continuous time frequency

Previous signals are periodic:

For any integer
Signals with different are always different

Discrete time frequency

Consider the following signal with uniform sampling

rate
The signal is periodic if and only if
That is, if frequency is a rational number

Periodic condition and Max frequency

Signals with frequencies and are indistinguishable:

Periodic condition and Max frequency

Periodic condition and Max frequency

Frequency of discrete signals is confined to

This phenomenon is known as Alias since
frequencies with distance share the same label
or alias

Systems

Exercise: Determine if the following systems are

linear, time-invariant, memoryless and BIBO stable
1.

DSP system

Analog to digital conversion

Sampling

Conversion of a continuous-time signal in to a

discrete-time signal by taking its values on discrete
instants. The output signal is not defined out of
sampling instants.

Sampling

Alias

Quantization

Conversion of a signal with continuous values to a

finite set of values

This is a non-linear operation with without reverse

Quantization

Resolution

Types of quantization

Ceil: Quantized value is the minimum q-level

greater or equal to the real value.
Floor: Quantized value is the maximum q-level less
or equal to the real value
Round: Quantized value is the closest q-level

Quantization error

Quantization error

If is less than the maximum quantization lever and

greater than the minimum lever: granular error
If is greater than the maximum quantization lever or
less than the minimum lever: overflow error

Quantization error

Without exact knowledge of the input signal,

quantization error can be considered

Maximum quantization error

Quantization error

Maximum values overestimate the quantization

error, more representative metrics are
Mean error
Mean square error

Quantization error

Previous equation are equivalent to the statistical

expectations if is considered a random variable
with uniform distribution

Quantization error

Assuming the signal to behave uniformly on the

whole dynamic range:

The last equation is common rule on the designing

and testing of algorithms in DSP

Quantization error: example

A signal is sampled at rate 44 Khz and quantized

with A/D, the dynamic range is 10 volts. Determine
the binary word-length to keep . Compute the bitrate of the resulting binary stream

Quantization error: example

Dynamic range on humans is 96 dB. This example

explain why CD format requires 16 bits words at
least