Sampling of Continuous-Time Signals

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Content and Figures are from Discrete-Time Signal Processing, 2e by Oppenheim, Shafer, and Buck, 1999-2000 Prentice Hall Inc.

Signal Types
Analog signals: continuous in time and amplitude
Example: voltage, current, temperature,

Digital signals: discrete both in time and amplitude

Example: attendance of this class, digitizes analog signals,

Discrete-time signal: discrete in time, continuous in amplitude

Example:hourly change of temperature in Austin

Theory for digital signals would be too complicated

Requires inclusion of nonlinearities into theory

Theory is based on discrete-time continuous-amplitude signals

Most convenient to develop theory
Good enough approximation to practice with some care

In practice we mostly process digital signals on processors

Need to take into account finite precision effects

Our text book is about the theory hence its title

Discrete-Time Signal Processing

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351M Digital Signal Processing

Periodic (Uniform) Sampling

Sampling is a continuous to discrete-time conversion

-3 -2 -1 0 1 2 3 4

Most common sampling is periodic

xn x c nT n
T is the sampling period in second
fs = 1/T is the sampling frequency in Hz
Sampling frequency in radian-per-second s=2fs rad/sec
Use [.] for discrete-time and (.) for continuous time signals
This is the ideal case not the practical but close enough
In practice it is implement with an analog-to-digital converters
We get digital signals that are quantized in amplitude and time

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Periodic Sampling
Sampling is, in general, not reversible
Given a sampled signal one could fit infinite continuous signals
through the samples
1
0.5
0
-0.5
-1
0

20

40

60

80

100

Fundamental issue in digital signal processing

If we loose information during sampling we cannot recover it

Under certain conditions an analog signal can be sampled without

loss so that it can be reconstructed perfectly

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Sampling Demo
In this movie the video camera is sampling at a fixed rate of 30
frames/second.
Observe how the rotating phasor aliases to different speeds as it
spins faster.

p t e j2 fot
pn pnT pn / fs e

j2

fo
n
fs

Demo from DSP First: A Multimedia Approach by McClellan, Schafer, Yoder

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351M Digital Signal Processing

Representation of Sampling
Mathematically convenient to represent in two stages
Impulse train modulator
Conversion of impulse train to a sequence

s(t)
xc(t)

Convert impulse
train to discretetime sequence

xc(t)

x[n]=xc(nT)

x[n]

s(t)

-3T-2T-T 0 T 2T3T4T

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-3 -2 -1 0 1 2 3 4

351M Digital Signal Processing

Continuous-Time Fourier Transform

Continuous-Time Fourier transform pair is defined as

X c j

jt

x
t
e
dt
c

1
jt

xc t
X
j

e
d
c

2
We write xc(t) as a weighted sum of complex exponentials
Remember some Fourier Transform properties
Time Convolution (frequency domain multiplication)

x(t) y(t) X( j)Y( j)

Frequency Convolution (time domain multiplication)

x(t)y(t) X( j) Y( j)

Modulation (Frequency shift)

x(t)e jot X j o

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Frequency Domain Representation of Sampling

Modulate (multiply) continuous-time signal with pulse train:

x s t x c t s t

x t t nT

s(t)

t nT

Lets take the Fourier Transform of xs(t) and s(t)

1
X s j
X c j S j
2

2
S j
k s

T k

Fourier transform of pulse train is again a pulse train

Note that multiplication in time is convolution in frequency
We represent frequency with = 2f hence s = 2fs

1
X s j
X c j k s

T k

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Frequency Domain Representation of Sampling

Convolution with pulse creates replicas at pulse location:

1
X s j
X c j ks

T k
This tells us that the impulse train modulator
Creates images of the Fourier transform of the input signal
Images are periodic with sampling frequency
If s< N sampling maybe irreversible due to aliasing of images

X c j

-N

X s j

s>2N
3s

-2s

s -N

2s

3s

X s j

s<2N
3s

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-2s

s -N

2s

3s

351M Digital Signal Processing

Nyquist Sampling Theorem

Let xc(t) be a bandlimited signal with

X c ( j) 0

for N

Then xc(t) is uniquely determined by its samples x[n]= xc(nT)

if
2

2fs 2N

N is generally known as the Nyquist Frequency

The minimum sampling rate that must be exceeded is known
as the Nyquist Rate
Low pass filter

X s j

s>2N
3s

-2s

s -N

2s

3s

X s j

s<2N
3s

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-2s

s -N

2s

3s

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Demo

Aliasing and Folding Demo

Samplemania from John Hopkins University

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