ELEC202 Communications

Problem Sheet 5 – Digitisation (Sampling and Quantization)

Reminder of relevant formulas:

Nyquist sampling rate 𝒇𝑵 = 𝟐𝒇𝒎 where 𝑓" is the message bandwidth

Number of levels for an n - bit quantizer 𝑳 = 𝟐𝒏

Number of bits for an L - level quantizer 𝒏 = 𝐥𝐨𝐠𝟐 𝑳
𝑹
Uniform quantization step size 𝚫= where 𝑹 is the range of the quantizer
𝑳
𝚫
Maximum quantization error 𝒆𝒎𝒂𝒙 = 𝟐 𝑹 is often ≈ 𝑉*+* the peak-to-peak voltage

Bit rate after digitisation 𝒏 ⋅ 𝒇𝒔 where 𝑓- is the sampling rate

Q1. A 10 kHz baseband signal is to be sampled prior to digitisation, but the highest sample rate
possible is 14 kHz resulting in aliasing. How much of the original signal bandwidth could be
retained (recovered) if the signal was passed through an anti-aliasing filter:

a) Before sampling (i.e. pre-filtering)?

b) After sampling (i.e. post-filtering)?

Q2. True or false?

a) Sampled signals must be digital.

b) Periodic signals cannot be recovered after Nyquist (=critical) sampling.

c) A bandlimited signal can be recovered exactly from its samples when the sampling rate
is greater than the Nyquist rate.

d) To allow for perfect signal reconstruction, the maximum time between adjacent samples
is T/2, where T is the reciprocal of the bandwidth of the signal.

e) Over- and under-sampling both lead to aliasing or spectral folding.

f) Anti-aliasing filters can completely remove the effects of aliasing, allowing under-
sampled signals to be reconstructed perfectly.
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Q3. The Nyquist rate for sampling the signal cos(100pt) + 200 is

a) 100p Hz
b) 200p Hz
c) 100 Hz
d) 110 Hz
e) 120 Hz
f) None of the above

Q4. A CD audio disk system has a frequency bandwidth of 20 Hz to 20 kHz.

The minimum sample rate to satisfy the Nyquist criteria is

a) 20 Hz
b) 40 Hz
c) 10 kHz
d) 20 kHz
e) 40 kHz

Q5. An AM signal has a carrier frequency of 100 kHz and a total bandwidth of 20 kHz. After
demodulation, the recovered audio message is sampled. What is the Nyquist rate for
this sampling process?

a) 10 kHz
b) 20 kHz
c) 40 kHz
d) 200 kHz
e) 240 kHz

Q6. The signal x(t) = 5cos(2000pt) + 2sin(4000pt) is to be sampled such that the guard
band between adjacent spectral replicas is at least 1 kHz. What is the minimum
acceptable sampling rate that will achieve this?

a) 3 kHz
b) 4 kHz
c) 5 kHz
d) 9 kHz
e) 13 kHz
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Q7. What is the Nyquist sampling rate for the signal x(t) = 10cos(2000pt) sin(4000pt) ?

a) 1 kHz
b) 2 kHz
c) 3 kHz
d) 6 kHz
e) 12 kHz

Q8. A signal cannot be perfectly reconstructed from its quantized samples.

What is the reason for this?

a) It would require a practically unrealisable filter that completely attenuates a range of

frequencies.
b) The effects of aliasing cannot be removed completely.
c) The signal is more susceptible to noise before digitisation.
d) Digitised data requires digital modulation, and this introduces distortion.
e) The reconstruction filter is never ideal.
f) None of the above.

Q9. Describe the nature and quality of the audio signal reconstructed after a 15 kHz audio
(music) signal is digitised in the following alternative ways:

a) Sampled at 15 kHz and quantized using a 16-bit ADC.

b) Sampled at 32 kHz and quantized using an 8-bit ADC.

Q10. An analogue signal is sampled at a rate of f. Hz (i.e. f. samples per second) and then
quantized using an ADC with bit depth n (i.e. n bits per sample). What is the resulting
bit rate (i.e. bits per second)?

a) 2𝑓-
b) 2𝑛𝑓-
c) 𝑛𝑓-
d) 𝑓- /𝑛
e) 𝑛/𝑓-
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Q11. The sampling rate for audio CD players is 44.1 kHz, with samples quantized using 16
bits per sample. How many bits would result from a 12-minute (mono) CD audio track?

Q12. A television signal with a bandwidth of 4.5 MHz is sampled and quantized for digital
transmission.

a) Determine the sampling rate if the signal is to be sampled a rate 20% above the Nyquist
rate.

b) Determine the number of bits required to encode each sample if the samples are
encoded into 1024 levels.

c) Determine the total number of bits required to encode a 10-minute TV segment.

Q13. A digital communication system uses a sampling clock operating at 16.2 kHz and a 20-
bit quantizer to digitise a 12 V peak-to-peak analogue signal (the signal matches the
dynamic range of the quantizer).

a) Find the sampling period, i.e. the time between adjacent samples.

b) How many quantization levels are permitted?

c) Assuming uniform quantization, what is the quantizer step size?

d) What is the maximum quantizer error?

Q14. An analogue signal is band-limited to 1 kHz and varies between -5 V and 5V and is
sampled at a rate 50% higher than the Nyquist rate and quantized using a 256-level
uniform quantizer with a dynamic range matching the input signal range. The resulting
bit stream is then encoded for live digital transmission.

a) Find the maximum quantizer error.

b) How many bits are required to encode each digitised sample?

c) What is the resulting data rate (bit rate) of the digital transmission?

d) How would the data rate change if the number of quantization levels were doubled?
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It is often necessary to select sampling rates and bit depths when configuring audio
devices and sound recording.

Q15. An audio (speech) signal, with frequency spectrum as shown, is

to be sampled and quantised prior to live digital transmission.

The maximum data rate supported by the channel is 130 kbps,

and the available sampling rates and bit depths are as follows:

Sampling rates: 8, 11, 22, 44, 88 and 96 kHz

Bit depths: 2, 4, 8, 16, 24 and 32 bits

Select the digitisation settings that would result in the highest quality reproduction of
the message at the receiver, justifying your choice.
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Solutions:

Q1. a) 7 kHz, b) 4 kHz Q2. F T T T F F Q3. c Q4. e

Q5. b Q6. c Q7. b, d Q8. f

Q9. a) High frequency content (>7.5 kHz) would be missing, so the music would sound different (more
bass, less treble), but quality would be high, i.e. no audible (quantization) noise.
b) Full audio spectrum, so music will sound similar, i.e. unchanged, but quality will be poorer
(audible hiss) due to quantization noise.
./0123. 89:. 89:.
Q10. c: .34567
× ./0123 = .34567 Q11. 44100 x 16 x 12 x 60 = 508 x108 bits
;< = =
Q12. a) 𝑓- = 31 + 6 × 2 × 4.5 × 10> = 10.8 MHz Q13. a) 𝑇- = = = 61.7 µs
=<< @! =>;<<
;<
b) 𝑛 = log ; 1024 = 10 bits b) 𝐿 = 2 = 1,048,576 levels
A"#" =;
c) 𝑛 ⋅ 𝑓- ⋅ 𝑇 = 10 × 10.8 × 10> × 10 × 60 c) Δ = B
= =,<DE,FG> = 11.4 µV
H
= 64.8 × 10? bits d) max error = = 5.7 µV
;
H A"#" =<
Q14. a) 𝑒"IJ = = = = 0.0195 V Q15. 8 kHz and 16 bits = 128 kbps
; ;B ;×;F>
b) 𝑛 = log ; 256 = 8 bits
c) 𝑛 ⋅ 𝑓- = 8 × 1.5 × 2 × 10M = 24 kb/s
= 9G8
NO=
d) Increased by a factor of
N