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Digital Signal Processing (DSP)

Digital Signal Processing (DSP) is one of the fastest growing fields of
technology and computer science in the world, with typically a growth rate in
excess of 30%. The growth of the computer industry has affected every corner
of daily life and everyone is aware of this effect. In today's western world almost
everyone uses DSPs in their everyday life, but unlike users of PCs almost no
one knows that they are using DSPs. Digital Signal Processors (DSPs) are
special purpose microprocessors and they are used in every form of electronic
product, from mobile phones and CD players to the automotive industry;
medical imaging systems to the electronic battlefield and from dishwashers to
satellites.

DSP is all about analysing and processing real-world or analogue signals - the
kind that humans interact with, for example speech. These signals are converted
to a format that the computers can understand (digital) and then they are
processed. The following diagram shows graphically the typical component
parts of a DSP system.

In order to process analog signals with digital computers, they must first be
converted to digital using analog to digital converters. Similarly the digital
signals must be converted back to analog for them to be used outside the
computer. The following diagram shows this process.

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The diagram shows the representation of a real-world analog signal in blue

and the digital representation of it in red. You will notice that the red line only
matches the blue line at discrete points and these are called the sampling
points. It is very important to take enough samples of the input so that it can be
faithfully represented. The number of samples taken in one second is referred to
as the sampling rate and a good rule-of-thumb is "the higher the sampling rate,
the higher the cost of the system".

There are many reasons why we process these analog signals in the digital
world (or domain) but these can all be reduced to two primary reasons, which
are :

Cost - DSP systems are almost always cheaper than analog.

Functionality - DSP systems can perform many operations that are
impossible in the analog world.

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Digital VCR

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MPEG (pronounced M-peg), which stands for Moving Picture Experts Group, is
the name of family of standards used for coding audio-visual information (e.g.,
movies, video, music) in a digital compressed format.

The major advantage of MPEG compared to other video and audio coding
formats is that MPEG files are much smaller for the same quality. This is
because MPEG uses very sophisticated compression techniques.

MPEG Audio Introduction

MPEG Video MPEG-4

Digital Cell Phone

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QPSK Modulation

When satellite transponders are used to transmit MPEG-2 signals, Quadrature

Phase Shift Keying is used to modulate the digital information onto an RF
carrier. Rather than using the amplitude or frequency of the carrier to convey the
information, QPSK modulates the phase of the carrier signal. Depending on the
data being modulated, the carrier is forced into one of four different phase
states, known as a symbol. The great advantage of this method is that each
symbol contains two data bits, thus doubling the potential amount of data that is
transmitted over conventional amplitude or frequency modulation (AM or FM)
techniques.
The diagrams below illustrate a typical implementation of QPSK:

The figure shows each possible pair of data bits is represented by a different
phase angle and figure 2 shows and example of a QPSK waveform. Because of
QPSK, data rates are quoted in Symbol Rate rather than bit rate. In the case of
QPSK modulation, the bit rate is twice high as the symbol rate. For example an
SR of 20MS/s (20 mega-symbols) means 40Mb/s (40 mega-bits per second).

Voice Over Internet

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