REGENT EDUCATION & RESEARCH

FOUNDATION
GROUP OF INSTITUTION
Basic understanding of different signal and the representation
of continuous and discrete signal.
Submitted By
Name : Manoj Kumar Gupta
Roll No: 26301620016
Subject: Digital control system, Subject Code- PE-EE-601A
Year: 3Rd Year, Semester: 6th Semester
Basic Definitions
A continuous-time (CT) signal is a function, s(t), that is defined for all time t contained in some interval on the real line. For historical reasons, CT signals are often
called analog signals. If the domain of definition for s(t) is restricted to a set of discrete points tn = nT, where n is an integer and T is the sampling period, the
signal s(tn) is called a discrete-time (DT) signal.
Often, if the sampling interval is well understood within the context of the discussion, the sampling period is normalized by T = 1, and a DT signal is represented
simply as a sequence s(n). If the values of the sequence s(n) are to be represented with a finite number of bits (as required in a finite state machine), then s(n) can take
on only a discrete set of values. In this case, s(n) is called a digital signal. Much of the theory that is used in DSP is actually the theory of DT signals and DT systems,
in that no amplitude quantization is assumed in the mathematics. However, all signals processed in binary machines are truly digital signals. One important question
that arises in virtually every application is the question of how many bits are required in the representation of the digital signals to guarantee that the performance of
the digital system is acceptably close to the performance of the ideal DT system.
Linear CT systems are characterized by the familiar mathematics of differential equations, continuous convolution operators, Laplace transforms, and Fourier
transforms. Similarly, linear DT systems are described by the mathematics of difference equations, discrete convolution operators, Z-transforms, and discrete Fourier
transforms. It appears that for every major concept in CT systems, there is a similar concept for DT systems (e.g., differential equations and difference equations,
continuous convolution and discrete convolution, etc.). However, in spite of this duality of concepts, it is impossible to apply directly the mathematics of CT systems
to DT systems, or vice versa.
Many modern systems consist of both analog and digital subsystems, with appropriate analog-to-digital (A/D) and digital-to-analog (D/A) devices at the interfaces. For
example, it is common to use a digital computer in the control loop of an analog plant. Analytical difficulties often occur at the boundaries between the analog and
digital portions of the system because the mathematics used on the two sides of the interface must be different. It is often useful to assume that a sequence s(n) is
derived from an analog signal sa(t) by ideal sampling, i.e.

(Eq. 1)

An alternative model for the sampled signal is denoted by s*(t) and defined by

(Eq. 2)

where δa(t) is an analog impulse function. Both s(n) and s*(t) are used throughout the literature to represent an ideal sampled signal. Note that even though s(n)
and s*(t) represent the same essential information, s(n) is a DT signal and s*(t) is a CT signal. Hence, they are not mathematically identical. In fact, s(n) is a “DT-
world” model of a sampled signal, whereas s*(t) is a “CT-world” model of the same phenomenon.
Continuous time
In contrast, continuous time views variables as having a particular value only for an infinitesimally short amount of time.
Between any two points in time there are an infinite number of other points in time. The variable "time" ranges over the
entire real number line, or depending on the context, over some subset of it such as the non-negative reals. Thus time is viewed
as a continuous variable.
A continuous signal or a continuous-time signal is a varying quantity (a signal) whose domain, which is often time, is
a continuum (e.g., a connected interval of the reals). That is, the function's domain is an uncountable set. The function itself
need not to be continuous. To contrast, a discrete-time signal has a countable domain, like the natural numbers.
A signal of continuous amplitude and time is known as a continuous-time signal or an analog signal. This (a signal) will have
some value at every instant of time. The electrical signals derived in proportion with the physical quantities such as
temperature, pressure, sound etc. are generally continuous signals. Other examples of continuous signals are sine wave, cosine
wave, triangular wave etc.
The signal is defined over a domain, which may or may not be finite, and there is a functional mapping from the domain to the
value of the signal. The continuity of the time variable, in connection with the law of density of real numbers, means that the
signal value can be found at any arbitrary point in time.
 Continuous Time Signals and Transform
Continuous Time Signals and Transform A continuous signal is a continuous function of time defined on the real
line R denoted by s(t), t is time. The signal can be complex valued. A continuous signal is called an analog signal.
A stable (integrable) signal is one that satisfies: denoted by s ∈ L 1 (R).

Examples
Example1: A stable signal, is the indicator function of the unit interval:

otherwise Analog sound signals are real oscillatory functions of time.

Example 2: sine wave (pure tone), s(t) = A sin(2π t/T + φ),
where A is amplitude, T is period in seconds, φ is phase in radians. The reciprocal of the period T is frequency in
Hertz (Hz) or cycles per second: f = 1/T.
Angular frequency is: ω = 2πf.
The sine wave can be written as: s(t) = A sin(2πf t + φ) = A sin(ω t + φ).
Sound of a pure tone is a classical topic in hearing science [5]. The human audible frequency range is from 20 Hz
to 20,000 Hz. Pure tones with frequencies lower than 200 Hz sound “dull”, while higher frequency (above 2000
Hz) pure tones sound “bright”. Ear is most sensitive in the range of 3000 to 5000 Hz.
 Fourier Transform
Fourier transform of a stable signal is:
sˆ(ν) =
denoted by F[s(t)] = sˆ(ν).
A few elementary properties of Fourier transform are:
• delay: F[s(t − t0)] = exp{−2πiνt0}sˆ(ν);
• modulation: F[exp{2πiν0t}s(t)] = sˆ(ν − ν0),
• scaling: F[s(ct)]=
• linearity: F[c1s1(t) + c2s2(t)] = c1sˆ1(ν) + c2sˆ2(ν),
• symmetry (∗ = complex conjugate): F[s∗(t)] = sˆ(−ν)∗.
Example 1: Let s(t) = 1[−1/2,1/2](t), the indicator function of the interval [−1/2,1/2], also known as the rectangular pulse.
Show in class that:
By scaling property, for any positive number T: F[1[−T/2,T/2](t)] = T sinc(ν T).

Note that the shorter (wider) the rectangular pulse, the wider (shorter) the spread of the transformed sinc function. This is known as uncertainty
principle.

Example 2: Gaussian pulse is invariant: F[exp{−π t2}] = exp{−πν2}.

Theorem
Let s ∈ L1 and sˆ ∈ L1.

Then: s(t)
Moreover:
Parseval identity.
Another useful property of the Fourier transform is that it can turn convolution into multiplication. The Fourier
transform of the convolution between two functions is the product of their Fourier transforms. Recall that the
convolution f(x) ∗ g(x) is defined by f(x) ∗ g(x) = .

Convolution-Multiplication Rule
F[f(x) ∗ g(x)] = ˆf(ν)ˆg(ν)
Discrete Time
Discrete time views values of variables as occurring at distinct, separate "points in time", or equivalently as being unchanged
throughout each non-zero region of time ("time period")—that is, time is viewed as a discrete variable. Thus a non-time variable
jumps from one value to another as time moves from one time period to the next. This view of time corresponds to a digital clock
that gives a fixed reading of 10:37 for a while, and then jumps to a new fixed reading of 10:38, etc. In this framework, each
variable of interest is measured once at each time period. The number of measurements between any two time periods is finite.
Measurements are typically made at sequential integer values of the variable "time".
A discrete signal or discrete-time signal is a time series consisting of a sequence of quantities.
Unlike a continuous-time signal, a discrete-time signal is not a function of a continuous argument; however, it may have been
obtained by sampling from a continuous-time signal. When a discrete-time signal is obtained by sampling a sequence at
uniformly spaced times, it has an associated sampling rate.

Discrete-time signals may have several origins, but can usually be classified into one of two groups:
•By acquiring values of an analog signal at constant or variable rate. This process is called sampling.
•By observing an inherently discrete-time process, such as the weekly peak value of a particular economic indicator.
Discrete Time Signals: Sampling and Transform
A discrete time signal is denoted s(n) or sn, where n is an integer and the value of s can be real or complex. It comes from a
sampling or discretization of a continuous signal s(t) with t = n∆,
where ∆ > 0 is a discrete time step known as the sampling interval. A discrete signal is called digital.
It is written as: s(n) = s(n∆).
Some signals occur naturally at discrete times without analog to digital conversion, such as warehouse inventories, daily stock
market prices. A transform maps a discrete signal to another. A related concept is discrete-time system that maps an input signal
to an output signal by a set of rules. We shall consider only linear system,
denoted by T[·],
satisfying Linearity: T[as1(n) + bs2(n)] = aT[s1(n)] + bT[s2(n)],
for any two constants a and b.
Examples
We list 3 simple and useful discrete signals.
Example 1: unit sample, denoted by δ(n),
The unit sample is used for decomposition of arbitrary signal into sums of weighted and delayed unit samples:
s(n) =
Example 2: unit step, denoted by u(n), u
related to unit sample by: u(n) =
Thank you