Université Mohamed KHEIDER, Biskra Faculté des Sciences et de la Technologie

Département Génie Electrique Année : 2020/2021

Title : continuous and discrete time signals -time signals

An analog signal is any continuous signal for which the time-varying feature (variable) of the signal is a
representation of some other time varying quantity. For example, in an analog audio signal, the instantaneous
voltage of the signal varies continuously with the pressure of the sound waves. It differs from a digital signal, in
which the continuous quantity is a representation of a sequence of discrete values which can only take on one of a
finite number of values. The term analog signal usually refers to electrical signals; however, mechanical, pneumatic,
hydraulic, human speech, and other systems may also convey or be considered analog signals. In mathematics
and in particular mathematical dynamics, discrete time and continuous time are two alternative frameworks within
which to model variables that evolve over time.

Quantization, in mathematics and digital signal processing, is the process of mapping input values from
a large set (often a continuous set) to output values in a (countable) smaller set, often with a finite number of
elements. Rounding and truncation are typical examples of quantization processes. Quantization is involved to
some degree in nearly all digital signal processing, as the process of representing a signal in digital form ordinarily
involves rounding. Quantization also forms the core of essentially all lossy compression algorithms.

The difference between an input value and its quantized value (such as round-off error) is referred to as
quantization error. A device or algorithmic function that performs quantization is called a quantizer. An analog-to-
digital converter is an example of a quantizer.
Bandwidth is the difference between the upper and lower frequencies in a continuous band of frequencies.
It is typically measured in hertz, and depending on context, may specifically refer to passband bandwidth or
baseband bandwidth. Passband bandwidth is the difference between the upper and lower cutoff frequencies of, for
example, a band-pass filter, a communication channel, or a signal spectrum. Baseband bandwidth applies to a low-
pass filter or baseband signal; the bandwidth is equal to its upper cutoff frequency.

Signal-to-noise ratio is a measure used in science and engineering that compares the level of a desired
signal to the level of background noise. SNR is defined as the ratio of signal power to the noise power, often
expressed in decibels. A ratio higher than 1 indicates more signal than noise.

In the field of digital signal processing, the sampling theorem is a fundamental bridge between continuous-time
signals and discrete-time signals. It establishes a sufficient condition for a sample rate that permits a discrete
sequence of samples to capture all the information from a continuous-time signal of finite bandwidth.

In signal processing, oversampling is the process of sampling a signal at a sampling frequency

significantly higher than the Nyquist rate. Theoretically, a bandwidth-limited signal can be perfectly reconstructed if
sampled at the Nyquist rate or above it. The Nyquist rate is defined as twice the highest frequency component in
the signal. Oversampling is capable of improving resolution, reducing noise and can be helpful in avoiding aliasing
and phase distortion by relaxing anti-aliasing filter performance requirements.

The analog signal is continuous in time and it is necessary to convert this to a flow of digital values. It is
therefore required to define the rate at which new digital values are sampled from the analog signal. The rate of
new values is called the sampling rate or sampling frequency of the converter. A continuously varying bandlimited
signal can be sampled (that is, the signal values at intervals of time T, the sampling time, are measured and stored)
and then the original signal can be exactly reproduced from the discrete-time values by an interpolation formula.
The accuracy is limited by quantization error. However, this faithful reproduction is only possible if the sampling rate
is higher than twice the highest frequency of the signal. This is essentially what is embodied in the Shannon-Nyquist
sampling theorem. Since a practical ADC cannot make an instantaneous conversion, the input value must
necessarily be held constant during the time that the converter performs a conversion (called the conversion time).
An input circuit called a sample and hold performs this task—in most cases by using a capacitor to store the analog
voltage at the input, and using an electronic switch or gate to disconnect the capacitor from the input. Many ADC
integrated circuits include the sample and hold subsystem internally.
In mathematics, Fourier analysis is the study of the way general functions may be represented or approximated by
sums of simpler trigonometric functions. The decomposition process itself is called a Fourier transformation.

The power spectrum Sxx(f) of a time series x(t) describes the distribution of power into frequency components
composing that signal. According to Fourier analysis, any physical signal can be decomposed into a number of
discrete frequencies or a spectrum of frequencies over a continuous range.

Questions:

1. Propose a title of this text

2. What’s the relation between correlation and power spectral density in one sentence?
3. In three or four sentences, give a difference between discretization and quantization.
4. What is the condition of sampling the analog signal in order to efficiency reconstructing it?