Discrete-Time Signals:

Time-Domain Representation
• Discrete-time Signals are represented as
sequences of numbers, called samples
• Sample value of a typical signal or sequence
denoted as x[n] with n being an integer in
the range
• x[n] defined only for integer values of n and
undefined for noninteger values of n
• Discrete-time signal represented by {x[n]}
 Discrete-Time Signals:
Time-Domain Representation
• Discrete-time signal may also be written as
a sequence of numbers inside braces:
{x[ n]}  {,  0.2, 2.2,1.1, 0.2,  3.7, 2.9,}


• In the above, x[1]  0.2, x[0]  2.2, x[1]  1.1,

etc.
 Discrete-Time Signals:
Time-Domain Representation
• Graphical representation of a discrete-time
signal with real-valued samples is as shown
below:
 Discrete-Time Signals:
Time-Domain Representation
• In the sequence {x[n]}, the quantity x[n] is
called the n-th sample of the sequence
• {x[n]} is a real sequence, if the n-th sample
x[n] is real for all values of n
• Otherwise, {x[n]} is a complex sequence
• Often the braces are ignored to denote a
sequence if there is no ambiguity
 Discrete-Time Signals:
Time-Domain Representation
• Two types of discrete-time signals:
- Sampled-data signals in which samples
are continuous in amplitude
- Digital signals in which samples are
discrete in amplitude
• Signals in a practical digital signal
processing system are digital signals
obtained by quantizing the sample values
either by rounding or truncation
 Discrete-Time Signals:
Time-Domain Representation
• A discrete-time signal may be a finite-
length or an infinite-length sequence
• Finite-length sequence is defined only for a
finite time interval: N1  n  N 2
where    N1 and N 2   with N1  N 2
• Length or duration of the above finite-
length sequence is N  N 2  N1  1
 Discrete-Time Signals:
Time-Domain Representation
• A length-N sequence is often referred to as
an N-point sequence
• The length of a finite-length sequence can
be increased by zero-padding, i.e., by
appending it with zeros
• A right-sided sequence x[n] has zero-
valued samples for n  N1
• If N1  0, a right-sided sequence is called a
causal sequence
 Discrete-Time Signals:
Time-Domain Representation
• A left-sided sequence x[n] has zero-valued
samples for n  N 2
• If N 2  0, a left-sided sequence is called a
anti-causal sequence
A right-sided sequence

A left-sided sequence
 Operations on Sequences:
Basic Operations
• Product (modulation) operation:
x[n]  y[n]
– Modulator y[n ]  x[n ]  w[n ]
w[n]

• An application is in forming a finite-length

sequence from an infinite-length sequence
by multiplying the latter with a finite-length
sequence called an window sequence
• Process called windowing
 Operations on Sequences:
Basic Operations
• Addition operation:
x[n]  y[n]
– Adder y[n ]  x[n ]  w[n ]
w[n]

• Multiplication operation
A
– Multiplier x[n] y[n] y [ n ]  A  x[ n ]
 Operations on Sequences:
Basic Operations
• Time-shifting operation: y[n]  x[n  N ]
where N is an integer
• If N > 0, it is delaying operation
– Unit delay
x[n] z 1 y[n]

• If N < 0, it is an advance operation

x[n] z y[n] y [ n ]  x [ n  1]
– Unit advance
 Operations on Sequences:
Basic Operations
• Time-reversal (folding) operation:
y[n ]  x[ n ]

• Branching operation: Used to provide

multiple copies of a sequence
x[n] x[n]

x[n]
 Combinations of Basic
Operations

• Example -

y[n]  1x[n]   2 x[n  1]  3 x[n  2]   4 x[n  3]

 Basic Sequences
• An arbitrary sequence can be represented in
the time-domain as a weighted sum of some
basic sequence and its delayed (advanced)
versions

x [ n ]  0 . 5  [ n  2 ]  1 . 5  [ n  1]   [ n  2 ]
  [ n  4 ]  0 . 75 [ n  6 ]
 Discrete-time Systems
• A Discrete-time system is a combinational block of
digital parts that perform some series of operations on
discrete signal in order to change, modify, or preserve it
(such operations are amplification, attenuation, filtering
etc.)
• A discrete-time system can be viewed as a model
represented by a combination of basic operations
operating on coefficients and signal values.
• Depending on how the coefficients are selected the
system can be a digital filter or an equaliser.
• Such a system can be implemented in digital hardware
or in software
 Discrete-Time Systems:
Properties
• Linear System
• Shift-Invariant System
• Causal System
• Stable System
 Linearity
• Definition - If y1[ n] is the output due to an
input x1[n] and y2 [n] is the output due to an
input x2 [n] then for an input
x[n]   x1[n]   x2 [n]
the output is given by
y[n]   y1[n]   y2 [n]
• Above property must hold for any arbitrary
constants  and  , and for all possible
inputs x1[n] and x2 [n]
 Shift-Invariance
• For a shift-invariant system, if y1[n] is the
response to an input x1[n], then the response
to an input
x[n]  x1[n  no ]
is simply
y[n]  y1[n  no ]
where no is any positive or negative integer
• The above relation must hold for any
arbitrary input and its corresponding output
 Shift-Invariance
• In the case of sequences and systems with
indices n related to discrete instants of time,
the above property is called time-invariance
property
• Time-invariance property ensures that for a
specified input, the output is independent of
the time the input is being applied
 LTI System
• Linear Time-Invariant (LTI) System -
A system satisfying both the linearity and
the time-invariance property
• LTI systems are mathematically easy to
analyze and characterize, and consequently,
easy to design
• Highly useful signal processing algorithms
have been developed utilizing this class of
systems over the last several decades
 Causality

• In a causal system, the no -th output sample

y[no ] depends only on input samples x[n]
for n  no and does not depend on input
samples for n  no
 Causality
• Examples of causal systems:
y[n]  1x[n]   2 x[n  1]  3 x[n  2]   4 x[n  3]
y[n]  b0 x[n]  b1x[n  1]  b2 x[n  2]
 a1 y[n  1]  a2 y[n  2]
y[n]  y[n  1]  x[n]
• Examples of noncausal systems:
1
y[n]  xu [n]  ( xu [n  1]  xu [n  1])
2
1
y[n]  xu [n]  ( xu [n  1]  xu [n  2])
3 2
 ( xu [n  2]  xu [n  1])
3
 Causality
• A non-causal system can be implemented as a
causal system by delaying the output by an
appropriate number of samples

• For example a non-causal factor of 2 interpolator

y[n]  xu [n]  1  xu [n  1]  xu [n  1]
2
can be implemented as a causal system
1
y[n]  xu [n  1]  ( xu [n  2]  xu [n])
2
 Stability
• There are various definitions of stability
• We consider here the bounded-input,
bounded-output (BIBO) stability
• If y[n] is the response to an input x[n] and if
x[n]  Bx for all values of n
then
y[n]  By for all values of n
 Stability
• Example - The M-point moving average
filter is BIBO stable:
M 1
 x[n  k ]
1
y[n] 
M
k 0
• For a bounded input x[n]  Bx we have
M 1 M 1
 x[n  k ]   x[n  k ]
1 1
y[n] 
M M
k 0 k 0
1
 ( MBx )  Bx
M