a) General Periodic Sequences

b) Sampling Continuous-Time Sinusoids And

The Sampling Theorem
a) General Periodic Sequences
We have previously considered periodic
complex exponential sequences and
periodic sinusoidal sequences. These are
special cases of general periodic
sequences which are defined by the
property
x(n+N)=x(n) for all n
where the period N is a positive integer.
This equation simply says that if we select
an arbitrary sequence member at sample
number n, the sequence values begin to
repeat N samples later.
a) General Periodic Sequences

For a sampled analog signal periodicity is

described by
x(nT + NT) = x(nT)
where T is the sampling interval. Shown
in figure below are several different
periodic sequences along with their
respective periods.
a) General Periodic Sequences

Periodic Sequence
b) Sampling Continuous-Time Sinusoids
And The Sampling Theorem
The discussion to focus on some important
properties of the sampling procedure for a
broader class of signals. Our goal is to
determine the conditions that allow an analog
signal to be represented by its
sample values. As below, we will use
the ideal sampler of Figure given to model the
process where the sampler output x(nT) at the
sampling point t=nT equals the value of the
sampler input x(t) at the same time instant.
b) Sampling Continuous-Time Sinusoids
And The Sampling Theorem

Ideal Sampling
b) Sampling Continuous-Time Sinusoids
And The Sampling Theorem
Consider a sinusoidal input to the ideal
sampler;
x(t) = A cos(ω
ωt + φ) = A cos(2Π
Πft +φ
φ)
and the sampled output sequence
x(nT) = A cos(ω
ωTn + φ) = A cos(2Π
ΠfTn +φ
φ)
or written as a sequence
x(n) = A cos(θ
θn + φ)
A is the zero-to-peak amplitude, φ is the phase,
and θ=ωωT = 2ΠΠfT is defined as the digital
frequency of the discrete-time sinusoid
b) Sampling Continuous-Time Sinusoids
And The Sampling Theorem
There are three conditions of sampling:
• Oversampling – sampling frequency is
higher than the Nyquist rate.
• Undersampling– sampling frequency is
lower than the Nyquist rate.
• Critical sampling – sampling frequency is
exactly equal to the Nyquist rate.

Nyquist rate is two times the bandwidth of a

bandlimited signal or a bandlimited channel.
b) Sampling Continuous-Time Sinusoids
And The Sampling Theorem
The Nyquist–Shannon sampling theorem
states that, when converting from an analog
signal to digital (or otherwise sampling a signal
at discrete intervals), the sampling frequency
must be greater than twice the highest
frequency of the input signal in order to be able
to reconstruct the original perfectly from the
sampled version.
b) Sampling Continuous-Time Sinusoids
And The Sampling Theorem
An example of why this is undesirable,
consider the situation in which a digital signal
processor is to determine whether or not the
frequency 250Hz is present in an analogue
signal, as in a sonar system, for example. If
the 250 Hz signal is not present, but either
both the 1250 Hz or 2250 Hz signal present,
the processor would incorrectly concluded
from the samples that the 250Hz signal was
present.
b) Sampling Continuous-Time Sinusoids
And The Sampling Theorem
b) Sampling Continuous-Time Sinusoids
And The Sampling Theorem
How do we avoid the potential difficulties?
If we select a high enough sampling frequency,
the signal samples will be unambiguous.
Furthermore, a result due to Nyquist and
Shannon tells us the minimum acceptable value
of the sampling frequency.
Let us consider the two analog signals below;
x1(t)=cos(2 Π •103t) --- solid curve
b) Sampling Continuous-Time Sinusoids
And The Sampling Theorem
which are sampled at an interval of T =
l.33(103) second or at a frequency of fs = 750
hertz. Notice that the samples ( and •) occur
at the same values for x1(t) and for x2(t) and it is
impossible to distinguish between them. Thus,
at this sampling rate the output of the sampler
would be the same if either of these two analog
signals were the inputs.
Idea x(n) Digital signal
x(t) y(n)
Sampler processor
b) Sampling Continuous-Time Sinusoids
And The Sampling Theorem