Dr.

Qadri Hamarsheh

Outline
 Discrete-Time Signals-Introduction.
 Plotting discrete-time signals.
 Sampling Process.
 Discrete-Time Signal Representations
 Important D-T Signals
 Digital Signals

Discrete-Time Signals-Introduction
The time variable t is said to be a discrete-time variable if t takes on only the
discrete values t  t n for some range of integer values of n .
For example: t  t n  n for n  0,1,2,...,
Discrete-time signal: is a signal that is a function of the discrete-time variable
t n ; in other words, a discrete-time signal has defined values only at the discrete-
time points t  t n ; so, a discrete time signal is a sequence of numbers indexed by
integers.
Example: x[n]  n  ...,3,2,1,0,1,2,3,..., brackets indicates D-T signal,
parenthesis indicates C-T signal.
Plotting discrete-time signals
A stem plot emphasizes that the signal does not exist in-between integer n
values. Sometimes we plot with line segments connecting the dots.
Matlab example1:
x[n] is given by:
x[3]  2, x[2]  1, x[1]  3, x[0]  5, x[1]  2, x[2]  1, x[3]  7
with x[n]  0 for all other n .
A plot of this signal (see Figure 2_1) can be generated by the following Matlab
commands (see Chapter2_1.m):
% script Chapter 2_1.m
% Plot a discrete-time signal using Matlab
% we need two vectors to plot one-dimensional signal
% the first vector defines the horizontal axes:
% samples points to calculate the signal values.
% the second one defines the values of the signal
% at samples points (vertical axes)

n = -3:3; %first vector

%x[n]=0 for all other n.
x = [2,-1,-3,5,2,-1,7]; %second vector
stem(n,x,'filled');
xlabel('Time Samples: n');
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 Dr. Qadri Hamarsheh
ylabel('x[n]: Signal values');
title('Discrete-Time Signal');
axis([-4 4 -4 8]);

Figure 2_1
Sampling Process
one of the most common ways in which D-T signal arise is in sampling the C-T
signals.
We can describe the sampling process as a switch that closes briefly every T
seconds (as shown in figure 2_2) , the output of the switch can be viewed as a D-T
signal that is a function of the discrete time points t  t n , where
n  ...,2,1,0,1,2,...,

C-T Signal D-T Signal

Switch
Figure 2_2: Sampling Process

The resulting D-T signal is called the sampled version of the original C-T
signal, and T is called the sampling interval.
Sampling methods:
 Uniform Sampling ( T - constant)
 Nonuniform Sampling ( T - variable)
By definition of the sampling process, the value of x[n] for any integer value of n
is given by
x[n]  x(t ) t  nT  x(nT )
1
is called sampling frequency or sampling rate ( Fs ) in samples/seconds.
T
Important Question: How fast should we sample a specific signal?
We should sample a specific signal with sampling rate that is slightly more than
twice the highest frequency in this signal.
Example: CD audio is sampled at 44100 samples per second
1
T   22.69  sec, because the humans can't hear frequencies above
44100
approximately 20 kHz.
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 Dr. Qadri Hamarsheh
Discrete-Time Signal Representations
 Graphical Representation: as shown in figures 2_1.
 Functional Representation, such as
2 n  1,4 
 
x[n]   3 n  2,3 
0 otherwise 

 Tabular Representation, such as
n … -2 -1 0 1 2 3 4 …
x[n] … 2 -1 5 7 4 -5 1 …
 Sequence Representation, such as
An infinite-duration signal or sequence with the time origin ( n  0 ) indicated by
the symbol  is represented as:
 
x[n]  ...,0,0,0,3, 6,3,1,1,5,...


 
A sequence x[n] which is zero for n  0 , can be represented as
x[n]  0,1,4,0,0,3,...

Matlab example 2:
% script Chapter 2_2.m
% Plot a discrete-time signal
% x[n]=3*exp(-0.3n)sin(2n/3)(n-3)^2

n = 0:20; %x[n]=0 for all other n.

x = 3*exp(-0.3*n).*sin(2/3*n).*(n-3).^2;
stem(n,x,'filled');
xlabel('n');
ylabel('x[n]');
title('D-T Signal: x[n]=3exp(-0.3n)sin(2n/3)(n-3)^2');
axis auto;

Figure 2_3

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Important D-T Signals
 Much of what we learned about C-T signals carries over to D-T signals.
1. D-T Unit Step signal
D-T unit step signal u[n] which is defined by
1, n  0,1,2,3,...
u[n]  
0 n  1,2,...
D-T step signal can be obtained by sampling the C-T step u(t ) (sampled
version of u(t ) ), the sketch of this signal is shown in figure 2_4 and the Matlab
code to generate unit step signal is written in Chapter 2_3.m
%Script Chapter2_3.m
function unitstep(np)
% Generates and plots x[n] = u[n];
% ------------------------------------------
% UNITSTEP (NP)
%np – points' count
if np < 0
error('argument np must satisfy np > 0')
end
n = [0:np];
x = [ones(1,np+1)];
stem(n,x,'filled');
xlabel('n');
ylabel('x[n]');
title('D-T Unit Step Signal')
axis ([-1 np+1 0 2]);
grid;

Figure 2_4
2. D-T Unit Ramp signal
D-T unit ramp signal r[n] which is defined by
n n  0,1,2,...
r[n]  
0 n  1,2,...
See figure 2_5a
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If the unit ramp r (t )  t  u(t ) is sampled, the result is given by
r[n]  r (t ) t  nT  r (nT )
See figure 2_5b
These two signals in figure 2_5 are not the same. Unless the sampling interval T
is equal to 1.
r[n] r[n]
4 4T
3 3T
2 2T
1 T

1 2 3 4 n 1 2 3 4 n

Figure 2_5a Figure 2_5b

Figure 2_5: D-T Unit-Ramp Signal

3. Unit Pulse (D-T Impulse )

There is no sampled version of the unit impulse  (t ) since  (0) is not defined.
The unit-impulse signal, defined by
1, n0
 [n]  
0, n0
See figure 2_6.
 [n]
1

1 2 3 4 n

Figure 2_6: D-T Unit-Impulse Signal

Sifting property for D-T Delta function

Note:
 [n] works inside summation , the same way  (t ) works inside integral
 

  [n]  1     (t )dt  1

Compare

n   
 

 x[n]   [n  n0 ]  x[n0 ]    x( t )   ( t  t 0 )dt  x( t 0 )

Compare

n   
Any sequence can be expressed as:

x[n]   x[k ]   [n  k ]
k  
4. Periodic D-T signals (D-T Sinusoid)
A discrete signal x[n] is periodic if there exists a positive integer r such that
x[n  r ]  x[n] , for all integer n .

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 Dr. Qadri Hamarsheh
D-T sinusoid given by:
x[n]  A cosn   
-use upper case omega for frequency of D-T signals.
  D-T frequency in radians per unit time T
what is the unit for  ?
n   must be in radians.
 is "how many radians jump for each sample ",  is in radians /sample
 is the phase in radians.
The signal is periodic with period r if
A cos(n  r )     A cosn   
Recall that cosine function repeats every 2 radians, so that
A cosn     A cosn  2q    for all integer q , so
2q
r  2q    (Fundamental period).
r
5. D-T Rectangular Pulse
Let S be a positive odd integer. D-T rectangular pulse signal PS [n] of length S
defined by
 ( S  1) ( S  1)
1 n ,...,1,0,1,...,
PS [n]   2 2

0 all other n
A graphical representation of this signal is illustrated in figure 2-7.
PS [n]

( S  1) -2 -1 1 2 3 ( S  1) n

2 2
Figure 2_7: D-T Rectangular Signal

Digital Signals
A digital signal x[n] is a discrete-time signal whose values belong to the finite
set: a1 , a 2 ,...,a N , at each time instant t n , we have
x(t n )  x[n]  a j , for some j , where 1  j  N .
 A practical ADC not only gives a D-T signal but also one that is "Digital".
 Binary signal is a digital signal whose values are equal to 1 or 0:
x[n]  0 or 1, for n  ...,2,1,0,1,2,...
 The sampled unit-step function and unit-pulse function are examples
of binary signals.