Chapter 1

MOTIVATION

Copyright c 1996 by Ali H. Sayed. All rights reserved. These notes are distributed only to the students attending the undergraduate DSP course EE113 in the Electrical Engineering Department at UCLA. The notes cannot be reproduced without written consent from the instructor: Prof. A. H. Sayed, Electrical Engineering Department, UCLA, CA 90095, sayed@ee.ucla.edu.

In this initial chapter we explain what is meant by the title: Discrete-Time Signal Processing What is a signal? What is a discrete-time signal? And what is signal processing?

Signals A signal is a function of one or more independent variables. The independent variable can be time, frequency, space coordinates, distance, or some other variable of interest. In this treatment, we shall focus almost exclusively on functions of a single variable and it will generally be the case that the independent variable is the time variable.

Examples of Signals

1. x(t): the position of a cart at time t. Here t is the independent variable and it assumes real values. The signal is denoted by the letter x. 2. x(i, j): the intensity or brightness of the (i, j)-th pixel in a two-dimensional image. Here (i, j) are the independent variables and they assume integer values. The signal is again denoted by the letter x. 3. x(n): the number of students attending a course at successive years. Here n is the independent variable and it assumes integer values. The signal is also denoted by the letter x. 4. w(r): the angular speed of a satellite in uniform circular motion around the earth at a radial distance r. Here r is the independent variable and it assumes positive real values. The signal is denoted by the letter w. 1

2 Classication of Signals

Motivation

Chapter 1

Signals can be classied in many ways. For the purposes of this treatment, we shall classify signals in two ways: 1. Continuous-time signals. In this case the independent variable assumes continuous real values. We shall generally denote a continuous-time signal by x(t), where t stands for the independent variable. An example of a continuous-time signal is the the temperature variation in a room over a period of time. 2. Discrete-time signals. In this case the independent variable assumes discrete (i.e., integer) values. We shall denote a discrete-time signal by x(n), where n stands for the independent variable. An example of a discrete-time signal is the average daily temperature in a city, where the independent variable species the day of interest and the signal measures the average temperature on that day. A discrete-time signal is also called a sequence. In this context, the notation x(n) would refer to the nth term of the sequence. We shall employ both terminologies: discrete-time signal and sequence.

Discrete-Time Signals The value (or amplitude) of a discrete-time signal x(n) at any particular time instant n is not restricted; it may assume integer values, real values, or even complex values. A digital signal, on the other hand, is a sequence where the amplitude of its terms has been limited to lie within a certain interval, say [A, A], and each amplitude is further quantized by using a certain number of bits. In other words, a digital signal is a sequence where the amplitude of its terms can belong to only a nite number of possibilities. Computers and digital signal processors operate on digital signals very eectively; digital signals are stored in computers and digital signal processors in the form of bits or bytes. In this book, we shall deal almost exclusively with discrete-time signals as opposed to digital signals. That is, the amplitude of each term in the sequence will not be restricted; it will generally be bounded but not quantized. There are at least three reasons for proceeding in this manner: 1. First, discrete-time signals are more tractable to mathematical analysis than digital signals. 2. Second, studying the degradation in performance that results from the introduction of quantization requires some additional tools that are beyond the scope of this introductory treatment. 3. Third, if we assume long enough word-lengths, i.e., if we assume digital signal representations that employ a suciently large number of bits to quantize the signal amplitudes, then the loss in performance and accuracy that results from the use of quantization may be assumed negligible in most cases.

Sampling

3 How do sequences arise? In many cases, the data may already be available in discrete-time form. For example, we may have available a table with entries that represent the yearly levels of rainfall for the last 20 years. In this case, we have a sequence with 20 entries and each entry in the table corresponds to a term in the sequence. Most often, however, sequences arise by sampling continuous-time signals. If x(t) is a continuous-time signal, sampling it every T units of time (usually seconds) results in the sequence x(nT ). That is, only values of x(t) at multiples of T are retained in the sampling process and the other values of x(t) are ignored. Usually, the compact notation x(n) is used to refer to the resulting sequence with the letter T dropped. Besides begin a compact representation of the sequence, the notation x(n) will also allow us to study properties of sequences independently of the sampling period T. Signal Processing Processing is the act of extracting information from a signal. For example, given a signal x(t) that represents the temperature variation over a period of time , we may extract information about the average temperature via integration as follows: x= 1

x(t)dt
0

Likewise, given a sequence x(n) that represents the yearly rainfall over the last 20 years, we may extract information about the average rainfall as follows: x= 1 x(n) 20 n=0
19

Observe that we are numbering the terms of the sequence x(n) in this example from 0 to 19 and not from 1 to 20. It is customary to use n = 0 as the origin of time when describing sequences and we shall adopt this convention in the book. Of course, we can perform more sophisticated processing on signals than just evaluate their averages. For example, we could attempt to use the available data in order to predict the level of rainfall two years ahead of time. Clearly, the processing (or the algorithm) that is needed to perform this prediction task is more involved than the processing (or algorithm) that is involved in computing the averages. Nevertheless, both operations are examples of signal processing. Systems The task of processing a signal in order to extract information from it is usually performed by a system. Systems operate on signals and transform an input signal into an output signal. In other words, they process input signals in order to extract relevant information from them or in order to transform them into other more desired forms. In this book we shall deal with discrete-time systems, i.e., systems whose input and output signals are sequences. Hence, we shall deal with the processing of discrete-time signals. The discipline that studies discrete-time signals and systems, and also digital signals, is known as Discrete-Time Signal Processing. Sometimes it is referred to as Digital Signal Processing (DSP). DSP Technology

Motivation

Chapter 1

The relevance of discrete-time signal processing is dictated by the enormous technological advances in digital computers and digital signal processors. These advances have made it advantageous to deal with sequences and digital data for the following reasons: 1. Digital hardware is very ecient in storing and processing digital information. In particular, stored information can be moved from one place to another almost by the click of a button and it can be processed at dierent locations and at dierent times as need dictates. 2. Digital hardware is usually programmable and therefore oers more exibility than analog implementations. By modifying program codes we can use the same hardware to perform dierent tasks. Analog implementations for dierent tasks tend to be dierent and may require elaborate testing and tuning. 3. Analog hardware is sensitive to component accuracy, temperature variations, and thermal noise. Digital hardware is more reliable in this respect. Still, DSP technology may not be ideal for all applications. There are situations, for instance, where we need to deal with signals that exhibit rapid variations and that require extremely high sampling rates. Faster rates generally translate into digital hardware operating at higher frequencies and at higher costs. Such situations call for solutions that involve specialized analog hardware or even hybrid solutions combining analog and digital technologies.