Kombolcha Institute of Technology

School of Electrical and Computer Engineering

Chapter One
Introduction to Digital Signal Processing
Jemal H. (Msc)

May, 2023

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 Chapter Contents

1.1 Basic Concepts of Digital Signal Processing

1.2 Analog-to-Digital Conversion, Digital-to-Analog Conversion
1.3 Digital Signal Sampling and Quantization
1.4 Signal Reconstruction
1.5 Digital Signal Processing Applications

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 1.1 Basic Concepts of Digital Signal Processing

What is Signal ?
• In digital signal processing;
Signal is any physical quantity that conveys an information and varies
with time, space, or any other independent variable.
• In the field of electrical engineering more generally, a signal is any time-
varying or spatial-varying quantity.
- Current, voltage, acoustic waveform, light intensity of camera...
• Often signals are represented mathematically as a function of independent
variables such as time (e.g. Speech signal), position (e.g. Image) etc.
• Signal processing is passing the signal through a system .
• Digital signal processing is the processing of a signal by a digital means.
• Dsp concerned with the representation of signals by sequence of numbers or
symbols and the processing of these sequence.

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 Types of Signals

• The independent variable may be either continuous or discrete.

• Analog signal is defined when both the independent variable time and the
amplitude are continuous.
• A signal that is a function of a discrete time represented as sequence of
numbers, x[n] ,is called Discrete -Time signal.
• When a discrete-time signal, x[n] , is quantized in amplitude,then we have
Digital Signal.

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 Typical Digital Signal Processing System

• The concept of DSP is illustrated by the simplified block diagram in as shown in

the figure below.

• Analog signal is fed to an analog filter,which is applied to limit the frequency

range of analog signals prior to the sampling process. The purpose of filtering
is to significantly attenuate aliasing distortion.
• The band-limited signal at the output of the analog filter is then sampled and
converted via the ADC unit into the digital signal, which is discrete both in
time and in amplitude.
• The DS processor then accepts the digital signal and processes the digital data
according to DSP rules for different applications.
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 1.2 Analog to Digital (A/D) Conversion

• Most signals of practical interest are analog in nature.

Examples: Voice, Video, RADAR signals, Biological signals .
• So in order to utilize those benefits, we need to convert these analog signals into
digital which is called A/D conversion.
• During the ADC process, amplitudes of the analog signal to be converted have
infinite precision.
• The basic idea of A/D conversion is to take a continuous-time signal, and
convert it to a discrete-time signal.
• The general process of A/D conversion looks like the following

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 Cont…

• A/D conversion can be viewed as a three step process

Sampling
• Conversion from continuous –time, continuous valued signal to discrete-time,
continuous-valued signal.
• Thus, if 𝑎( ) is the input to the sampler, the output is 𝑎(n ) = ( ) , where T is
called the sampling interval
Quantization
• This is the conversion of a discrete-time continuous-valued signal ( ) in to a
discrete-time, discrete-valued (digital) signal 𝑞( ).
• The value of each signal sample is represented by a value selected from a finite set of
possible values (converts infinite precision to finite one).
Coding
• Conversion from a discrete-time, discrete-valued signal to an efficient digital data format
& assigns a binary number to each quantization level.
• Generally the ADC unit samples the analog signal, quantizes the sampled signal and encodes
the quantized signal levels to the digital signal.
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 Cont…

• The general process of A/D conversion summarized as follows

Analog Binary
Signal Sampling Quantization Coding bits

CT-CV DT-CV DT-DV DT-DV

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 1.3 Sampling of Analog Signals

• Analog signal contains an infinite number of points.

• Signal sampling is the process of converting continuous-time analog signal
in to a discrete-time signal by taking the samples at fixed time interval.
• Figure below shows an analog signal defined at every point over the time axis

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 Cont…

• Sampling period (interval) is the fixed time interval T between successive

samples or the time that separates sampling points.
• The reciprocal of the sampling period is the sampling rate and half of the
sampling rate is the folding frequency (Nyquist limit).
• The sampling rate is therefore given by
sample/sec (Hz) or rad/sec.
• Typically, discrete-time signals, are often arises from periodic sampling
of a continuous-time signals, according to the relation
where 𝒔 is the sampling interval

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 Cont…

• If a sampling period is 125 µs, the sampling rate is = µs= 8,000

samples per second (Hz)
• The following figure shows the representation of sampling and sampling intervals
for the given continues time signal.

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 Signal Sampling

• It is convenient to represent an ideal sampling process mathematically in two steps:

• First, the CT signal, , is multiplied by a periodic sequence of infinite impulse
train, s(t), to form the sampled signal
) Unit Impulse function
• Mathematically

• Second the sampled signal, , is converted into a discrete-time signal by

mapping the impulse that are spaced in time by Ts into a sequence

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 Cont…

• Process of continuous signal sampling in to discrete sequence looks as shown below.

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 Quantization

• Quantization is the process of converting analog signal with infinite precision to finite
precision so that the continuous amplitude signal is converted to digital data.
• Thus, an infinite number of possible levels are converted to a finite number of
conditions.
• Quantizer do the conversion of discrete time continuous valued signal x(n) into a
discrete-time discrete amplitude (n) signal.
• The notations and general rules for quantization are:
𝒙𝒎𝒂𝒙 𝒙𝒎𝒊𝒏 𝒎 𝒙 𝒙𝒎𝒊𝒏
𝐋 ∆

𝒒 𝒎𝒊𝒏

• The symbol is the step size of the quantizer or the ADC resolution.
• 𝒎𝒂𝒙 and 𝒎𝒊𝒏 are the maximum and minimum values of the analog input signal
• The symbol L denotes the number of quantization levels
• m is the number of bits used in ADC.
• indicates the quantization level and is an index respective to the binary code.
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 Quantization of Sinusoidal Signal

The analog sinusoidal signal, 𝑎 0

The discrete sinusoidal signal, 𝑎

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 Example

1) Assuming that a 3-bit ADC channel accepts analog input ranging from 0 to 5 volts,
determine the following:
a. Number of quantization levels c. Binary code produced by the ADC
b. Step size of the quantizer or resolution d. the quantization level when the
analog voltage is 3.2 volts;

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 Digital-to-Analog (D/A) Conversion

• The D/A conversion process is employed to convert the digital signal into an analog
form after it has been digitally processed.
• The reason for such conversion is to generate an audio signal, to drive a loudspeaker
or to sound an alarm.
• This process begins by converting each digital code into an analog voltage that is
proportional in size to the number represented by the code.
DAC Conversion

Digital Convert to Zero order Anti-Image Analog

Analog level Hold Filtering
Code Signal

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 Cont…

• Sample and hold (S/H) takes a snapshot of the analogue signal every T sec and then
holds that constant value for T seconds until the next snapshot is obtained.

• The role of anti-imaging filter is to smooth out the steps in the D/A output thereby
removing the unwanted high frequency components and the requirements of the anti-
imaging filter are similar to those of the anti-aliasing filter.

• Remove the spectral images that exist in the sample-and-hold signal and obtain
the smoothed analog signal.
• Reconstruction of signal is carried out by combining a DA converter with a sample-
and-hold circuit, followed by a low pass reconstruction filter.

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 Frequency domain representation of sampling

• The effect of continuous to discrete time conversion maybe analyzed by considering

the Fourier transform of .
• Since is the product of and s(t) ,the Fourier transform of is the
convolution of the Fourier transforms of and .
• s(t) is a periodic function of impulse train which is represented in time domain as,

which has a frequency representation of

• ) * thus

Finally we get

𝒔 𝒄 𝒔
𝒔𝒌
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 Cont…

• Suppose that is strictly band-limited so that = 0 for > as

shown in the figure bellow.

• If is sampled with a sampling frequency > , the Fourier transform of

which is is formed by periodically replicating
• Spectrum of the sampled signal for looks as shown below

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 Cont…

• However , if < , the shifted spectra ) overlap, and when these

spectra are summed to form ,the result is as shown bellow.

• This overlapping of spectral components is called aliasing.

• When aliasing occurs, the frequency of is corrupted, and cannot
recovered from .
• Aliasing can be avoided by using Nyquist sampling theorem.

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 Nyquist Sampling Theorem

• The sampling theorem states that an analog signal can be perfectly recovered
as long as the sampling rate is at least twice as large as the highest-frequency
component of the analog signal to be sampled.
• If xc(t) is strictly band-limited, Xc (j ) = 0 for| | > N then xc(t) may be
uniquely recovered from its sample xc (nTs ) if
or
• The frequency is called the Nyquist frequency, and the minimum
sampling frequency, , is called the Nyquist rate.
• Thus ,in order to avoid aliasing, the operating frequency of the signal should be
in Nyquist interval [ , ]
• This is done by analog low-pass pre-filter known as an anti-aliasing
• The cutoff frequency of this pre-filter, ,is taken to be the Nyquist
frequency,

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 Example

Let x (t) = 4 + 3cos(πt) + 2cos(2πt) + cos(3πt).

• Determine the minimum sampling rate that will not cause any aliasing effects.
• If x (t) is sampled at half the Nyquist rate determine xa(t) that would be aliased
with x (t).
Solution
• The frequencies in x(t) are
Hz , Hz , Hz, Hz
• Thus, fmax = f4 = 1.5Hz and the minimum sampling rate is fs = 2fmax = 3Hz
,
• If x(t) is sampled at half of this rate i.e = 1.5Hz ,then aliasing will occur.
, ,
• The Nyquist interval of this case is , , ,
• The aliased frequencies will be only due to & since they are outside the
Nyquist interval.

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 1.4 Signal Reconstruction

• Signal reconstruction deals with the recovery of analog signal from its sampled
signal version.
• The are two basic and simplied steps for the recovery of a signal.
• First, the digitally processed data are converted to the ideal impulse train
.
• Second, the analog reconstruction filter is applied to the ideally recovered
sampled signal to obtain the recovered analog signal.
• If the highest frequency contained in an analogue signal is and the
signal is sampled at a rate ≥ 2 then can be exactly recovered from
its sample values.
• If no aliasing occurs during the sampling process then we can apply a low pass
filter to extract from .

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 Cont…

• An ideal reconstructor is supposed to extract from a sampled signal, all the frequency
components that lie within the Nyquist interval, [ , ], & removes all frequencies
outside the interval.
• This shows that an ideal reconstructor,[ ]; acts as an ideal low-pass filter with
cut-off frequency equal to the Nyquist frequency .

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 Cont…
• If no aliasing occurs during the sampling processing by applying a lowpass filter,
[ ]; we can extract x(t) from .
• is a periodic replicate of Now, if we apply an ideal low pass filter then

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 Cont…

• If aliasing occurs and even if we apply the lowpass filter to , the

result is not X 𝑗𝜔 so that we are unable to recover x(t) from by using
an ideal lowpass filter.

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 1.5 Digital Signal Processing Applications

• Digital signal processing (DSP) technology and its advancements have

dramatically changed our modern society everywhere.
• Some of the basic applications of Dsp are the following

Biomedical:
• Spectrum analysis signals to identify various disorders
in heart, brain ultrasounds
• Analysis of biomedical signals, diagnosis,
patient monitoring, preventive health care, artificial organs.
Examples:
• Electrocardiogram (ECG) signal-provides doctor
with information about the condition of the patient heart.
• EEG is used to study normal and abnormal behaviour of the brain
• X-ray images are used to predict the bone fractures and tuberculosis.
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 Application cont…

Speech Processing
• Noise reduction-reducing background noise in the
sequence produced by a sensing device (Microphone).
• Speech recognition-differentiating between various speech sounds.

Communication Application
• Telephony- transmission of information in digital form
via telephones line, modem technology, mobile phones.

• Encoding and decoding of the information

sent over a physical channel (to optimize
transmission or to detect or correct errors
in transmission

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 Cont…

Image processing :
• Image enhancement
• Compression- reducing the redundancy in theimage data to optimize
transmission/storage
• Image compression and decompression to reduce memory requirement of
storage systems.
• Image compression and decompression for effective use of transmission
channels.
• Image recognition for security systems.

Multimedia Processing :
• Generation storage and transmission of sound, motion pictures video
conferencing.

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 Advantages and Disadvantages (Pros and cons ) of DSP

• Pros of DSP
- Flexibility can be achieved with software implementations.
- Easy to duplicate.
- Digital information can be encrypted for security.
- Digital storage is cheap.
- Non-linear and time-varying operations are easier to implement.
- Sensitivity to electrical noise is minimal.
- Stable and robust, not varying with temperature.
• Cons of DSP
- Sampling causes loss of information.
- Limited speed of processors.
- Quantization and round-off errors.
- Limited to signals with relatively low bandwidths
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 The End

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