EC 203: Signals & Systems

Course Instructor: Dr. Debashis Ghosh

Department of Electronics & Communication Engg.

Indian Institute of Technology Roorkee
Syllabus
Fundamentals of signals and systems.
System representation by differential / difference
equations; system responses, -- natural response, forced
response, etc.
Fourier series and Fourier transform.
Laplace transform; System transfer function, etc.
DTFT, DFT, and z-transform.
Time-frequency analysis; Filters, etc.
 Suggested Texts / References
S. Haykin & B. Van Veen, Signals and Systems, Wiley.
A.V. Oppenheim, A.S. Wilskey & I.T. Young, Signals &
Systems, PHI.
M.J. Roberts, Fundamentals of Signals & Systems, Tata-
McGraw Hill.
B.P. Lathi, Linear Systems and Signals, Oxford.
R.E. Ziemer, W.H. Tranter, & D.R. Fannin, Signals and
Systems: Continuous and Discrete, Pearson.
Assessment

Tutorials / assignments (10%)

2 quizzes (15%)
Mid-term test (25%)
End-term examination (50%)
Signals
What is signal?
Electrical communication Electrical (voltage or
current) waveform (EM wave).
Optical communication Light wave.
Common signals speech / audio, image / video.
Transducers used for generation of electrical signals
from real world scenes / sound and vice versa TV
camera + TV monitor, microphone + speaker system.
Signal representation time domain and frequency
domain.
Any arbitrary signal can be decomposed into a set of
sinusoids.
Signals
Signal waveform may be changed by changing the
amplitude (magnitude) or by changing the timing
(frequency).
Amplitude variation by volume control or by contrast
control (gain variation) only change the audibility /
visibility. Signal is basically scaled. Otherwise the nature
of the waveform is preserved.
Timing or frequency variation changes the nature of the
waveform. Not possible in on-line communication.
Requires buffering. Examples, a tape recorder played at
a different speed, TV signal displayed at a different
frame rate.
Signals
Real world is analog in nature.
Signal digitization time-discretization (sampling),
amplitude-discretization (quantization) and encoding.
Playback timing information in header.
Amplitude and frequency variation in digitally coded
signal.
Down-sampling (decimation) or up-sampling
(interpolation) if necessary explain w.r.t. HDTV and
general TV systems.
Classification of Signals
Cont.-time (analog) and discrete-time (digital) signals.
Even (symmetric) and odd (antisymmetric) signals.
Decomposition of a signal x(t) into even-odd
components.
Conjugate symmetric signal.
Periodic and non-periodic (aperiodic) signals
fundamental frequency in cont. and discrete cases.
Deterministic and random signals.
Energy and power signals periodic / random signals
are generally power signals while non-periodic +
deterministic are generally viewed as energy signals.
Elementary signals
Unit impulse
Unit step
Signum
Rectangular pulse
Ramp function
Sinusoids natural frequency
Exponential (decaying or growing) and complex
exponential damping (neper) frequency
Exponentially damped sinusiodal
System
x(t ) y (t ) H x(t )
or H or
x[n] y[n] H x[n]

x(t) is continuous-time input signal and y(t) is the

corresponding continuous-time output signal in case of
analog system.
x[n] is discrete-time input signal (a sequence of
samples) and y[n] is the corresponding output sample
sequence in case of discrete system.
H is the system operator that defines the input-output
relationship.
Example of a simple system Moving Average System
System properties
Stability Bounded output for bounded input.
Memory In memoryless system, the output at any point
of time depends only on the present input value. So,
memoryless system does not require any buffering while
a system with memory must buffer some past and/or
future inputs.
Causality Output does not depend on any future input
value. So, a causal system can be used in real time but
not a non-causal system. A non-causal system always
has memory.
Time invariance Any time-shift in input produces the
same time-shift in the output. That means the
characteristics of the system do not change with time.
System properties
Invertibility The input can be obtained back uniquely,
except for a constant scale factor, from the output by
applying to a system whose operator G is defined as the
inverse of H, that is G H 1 . This means the combined
operation H .G H .H 1 is an identity operator I.
Linearity Superposition and homogeneity conditions
are satisfied.
Superposition Output due to a composite input is
equal to the combination of outputs due to each of the
composing input signals.
Homogeneity If the input is scaled by a constant, the
output is also scaled by the same constant.
Discrete LTI system

Unit impulse input sequence

1, n 0 1, n k
[ n] [n k ]
0, n 0 0, n k

Impulse response of LTI system

h[ n] H [ n]

due to time-invariance
h[n k ] H [n k ]
Discrete LTI system

Any input sequence Sum of weighted time-shifted

impulse sequences;
weight is the kth sample for shift by k samples

shift in time equals to k sample intervals

x[n] x[k ]. [n k ]
k

Corresponding output:

y[n] H
k

x[k ]. [n k ]

Discrete LTI system
By superposition

y[n] H
k
x[k ]. [n k ]
k
H x[k ]. [n k ]

By homogeneity

y[n] H x[k ]. [n k ] x[k ].H [n k ] x[k ].h[n k ]
k k k

Output sequence is the sum of weighted time-shifted

impulse response sequences; weight is the kth sample
for shift by k samples.
Discrete LTI system

Convolution Convolution of two sequences p[n] and

q[n] is defined as

p[n] * q[n] p[k ]q[n k ]
k

Therefore, the output of a system is the convolution of

the two sequences: input sequence and the impulse
response sequence
y[n] x[n] * h[n]
 Method for computing convolution
Step 1: Obtain h[k] by reflecting sequence h[k] about k = 0.
Step 2: For a particular value of n, shift sequence h[k] by n
samples to get h[(k n)] = h[n k].
Step 3: Multiply the sequences h[n k] and x[k], and sum up
the sample values of the resultant sequence. This gives the
sample y[n].
Step 4: Perform above two steps for all values of n from
to +. This gives the complete output sequence y[n].
Method for computing convolution

This method of computing convoltion is called reflect-

and-shift convolution sum evaluation method.
Convolution operation is commutative sequence x[k]
(instead of h[k]) may be reflected and shifted, and then
multiplied to h[k] to get the same result.

y[n] x[n] * h[n] x[k ]h[n k ] h[k ]x[n k ]
k k
Continuous time LTI system
Impulse response: h(t ) H (t )

and by time-invariance: h(t ) H (t )

Input signal: x(t ) x( ) ( t )d x( ) (t )d

System output:

y (t ) H x(t ) H x ( ) (t )d H x ( ) (t )d


x( ) H (t )d x( )h(t )d x(t ) h(t )

Continuous time LTI system

Convolution of two continuous-time signals can be

computed in a manner similar to the discrete case where
summation is to be replaced by integration reflect-and-
shift convolution integral evaluation method.
As in discrete case, due to commutative property of
convolution, the output can also be computed as

y (t ) h( ) x(t )d

Impulse response of a system
Therefore, a system (operation H) can be defined in
terms of its impulse response only:

y (t ) x (t ) * h(t )
x(t ) h(t )
or or or
x[n] h[n]
y[ n] x[ n] * h[ n]
System interconnections
Parallel
for analog h(t ) h1 (t ) h2 (t )

for discrete h[n] h1 [n] h2 [n]

Cascade
for analog h(t ) h1 (t ) h2 (t )

for discrete h[n] h1[n] * h2 [n]

Impulse response for LTI systems

Discrete LTI system output: y[n] h[k ]x[n k ]
k

Cont. time LTI system output: y (t )

h( ) x(t )d
Memoryless LTI system: y[n] should depend on x[n] only.
Therefore, k 0
c
h[k ] h[n] c. [n]

0 otherwise

Similarly, in analog case h(t ) c. (t )

Impulse response for LTI systems

Causal LTI system: y[n] should depend on x[n k], k

zero and positive, only.
Therefore,
ck , k 0
h[k ]
0, k 0

Similarly, in analog case h(t ) 0 for t 0

Impulse response for LTI systems
Stable LTI system

y[n] h[k ].x[n k ] h[k ].x[n k ] h[k ] . x[n k ]
k k k

If bounded input then for all n,

x[n] M x y[n] M x h[k ]
k

For bounded output, required condition is absolutely

summable impulse response, that is
h[n]
k
Similarly for analogcase, we require absolutely integrable

impulse response h(t ) dt

Impulse response for LTI systems

Invertible system
For analog case,
x(t ) y (t ) hinv (t ) x(t ) h(t ) hinv (t ) x(t ) h(t )

x( )h(t )d

h(t ) h(t ) hinv (t ) (t )

Similarly for discrete case,

h[n] * h inv [n] [n]
Deconvolution

The process of recovering x(t) or x[n] from x(t)*h(t) or

from x[n]*h[n], whatever is the case.
Possible only in case of an invertible LTI system.
The inverse system performs the deconvolution.
Step response of LTI system
n
Discrete case: s[n] h[k ].u[n k ] h[k ]
k k

It follows:

h[n] s[n] s[n 1]

t
Analog case: s (t )
h( )d

It follows: d
h(t ) s (t )
dt