Communications Engineering - ELEC 341

Chapter 2

SIGNALS AND SIGNAL SPACE

Lecture 2: Outline
1. Size of Signals
2. Classification of Signals
3. Unit Impulse Signal
4. Signals Versus Vectors
5. Correlation of Signals
6. Othogonal Signal Set
7. Exponential Fourier Series

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2.1 Size of Signal
Signal Energy:
 We define Signal Energy Eg of the signal g(t)
(the energy that the voltage g(t) dissipates on the resistor)

Eg   dt
2
g (t )


 For Complex-valued signal


Eg  
2
g (t ) dt

Signal Power:
 Signal Energy must be Finite
 The average power is defined by
1 T /2
Pg  lim  g (t ) 2 dt
T / 2
T  T
Figure 2.1 Examples of signals:
 For Complex-valued signal (a) signal with finite energy;
(b) signal with finite power.
1 T /2
T T / 2
Pg  lim
2
g (t ) dt
T 
2.1 Size of Signal
Units of Signal Energy and Power
 Standard units of signal energy and power: Joule and watt
 A signal with average power P watts has power
P
10 log10 P [dBw]  10 log10 3
 30  10 log10 P [dBm]
10
Example 2.1
 Determine the suitable measure of the Signals below

4
2.2 Classification of Signals
 Continuous and discrete
 Based on the time variable
 Analog and Digital
 Based on the signal value
 Periodic and aperiodic
 Energy signals and power signals
 Based on which one is finite
 Deterministic and probabilistic (random)
 You know the value of the signal for sure or you can only
guess its value
2.2 Classification of Signals
1) Continuous time and discrete time signals 2) Analog and digital signals
 (a) analog and continuous time
 (b) digital and continuous time
 (c) analog and discrete time
 (d) digital and discrete time.

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Useful signal operations
 Time shifting

 Time scaling

 Time inversion
2.2 Classification of Signals
2.2.3 Periodic signal of period T0
• A signal g(t) is periodic if there is positive constant T0 such that

g (t )  g (t  T0 ) for all t
• A signal is aperiodic if it is not periodic

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Useful signal operations
 Time shifting
Useful signal operations
 Time Scaling
Useful signal operations
 Examples of time compression and time expansion of signals
Useful signal operations
 Example of time inversion
 Unit impulse and unit step functions
 Unit impulse definition  Unit step definition
 Sampling property  Relation with unit impulse
 Multiplication with an exp
 It is a generalized function onential and effect on ener
 We use the sampling as the gy
actual definition
 Types of signals and their classifications

 Important properties of signals

 Important operations on signals

Signals and vectors - I
 Vectors are quantities that have more than one dimension
(e.g. value and direction),
 g(t) a signal Vector defined over [a, b], N points uniformly distributed over [a, b]
ba
assume t1  a, t2  a   t N  a  ( N  1) 
N 1
g  [ g (t1 ) g (t2 )  g (t N )]
 Projection of vectors
 It is an approximation of a vector in terms of another
g  cx  e
 Minimum error representation
 The dot product g  x  g x cos 

 Orthogonal vectors → dot product is equal to zero

g x cos 
c 2
x
Signals and vectors - II
 Projection of signals (functions)

 Approximation of a function in terms of another g (t )  cx(t )  e(t )


Energy is a representative of the function size
Ee    g (t )  cx(t )

2
dt

 Minimum error energy representation

 The dot product g (t )  x(t )   g (t ) x(t )dt


 Orthogonal functions → dot product is zero



 The complex case g (t )  x(t )  


g (t ) x (t )dt

Sum of orthogonal signals xi(t) E x (t )   Exi


i
Example 2.2
 Approximate g(t) in terms of sin(t): g (t )  c sin(t ) 0  t  2

2
  g (t ) x(t )dt 2
 g (t )  cx(t )
1
Ee   
2
dt  c  0
2
 g (t ) x(t )dt

 Ex
2 0
x (t ) dt
0

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Correlation and signal comparisons
The case of vectors

xg
 Similarity is defined by what? cn  cos  
 length of projection or x g
 angle?
The case of signals 1 
cn  

g (t ) x(t )dt
 Similar Eg Ex 
 Opposite
 Strangers (independent)
 Applications to signal detection
 The cross-correlation and autocorrelation 
 Measure the similarity  gx ( )   g (t ) x(t   )dt
 Allow for time shifts 

E.g. Radar system
 g ( )   g (t ) g (t   )dt



Signal representation by orthogonal sets
 Orthogonal vector space
 The set of orthonormal basis
 The complete set
 The unique representation
 Orthogonal signal space
g (t )  c1 x1 (t )  c2 x2 (t )  ...  cn xn (t )  ...
 The set of orthonormal basis 
g (t )   cn xn (t ) t1  t  t2
 The complete set n 1

 The unique representation e(t )  0 while Ee  0

 The equality is not in the ordinary
sense
 Signals and Spectrum
In the following we consider the representation of signals in
the time and frequency domains, and the relationship between
these representations.

In the frequency domain we view the signal as consisting of

sinusoidal or exponential components at various frequencies.

The mathematical definition of the frequency domain

representation, that is, the spectrum, is determined by the
Fourier transform.

The spectrum for periodic signals is obtained using the

Fourier series.

Notice: singular: spectrum; plural: spectra

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Sinusoidal Signals
 Sinusoidal signals are modelled as
v(t )  A cos(0t   )  A cos(2f 0t   )

where A is the amplitude, w0 is the angular frequency

(f0 is the frequency) and is the phase.

 This is a periodic signal whose period is T0  2  /  0  1 / f0

 One peak of the signal is at t    /  0
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Spectrum of sinusoidal signal
 The line spectrum associates a particular amplitude and
phase to a certain frequency.
 The one sided line spectrum of a sinusoidal signal is:

 The amplitude and phase spectrum have an impulse at f0 .

The essential parameters of the signal can be seen from the
spectrum: frequency, amplitude, and phase.

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 Linear combination of sinusoidal signals
w(t )  7  10 cos(40t  60)  4 sin120t

This can be rewritten in the form:

w(t )  7 cos 2 0t  10 cos(2 20t  120 )  4 cos(2 60t  90 )

which can be utilized to plot the
one-sided line spectrum:

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The complex representation of sinusoidal signal
 Usually signals are real-valued. However, the concept of complex signals
is a useful tool in telecommunication. Most cases can be handled by using
real signals, however, complex signals are widely used in spectral analysis
 Use of complex signal models arises from the properties of the Fourier
transform (the basis functions are complex).
 The following Euler's equations are often needed:
e j  cos   j sin 
 On the other hand, sine and cosine are given by

 Notice that |ejx| = 1 for any real x.

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The complex representation of sinusoidal signal (cont.)
The following notations and conventions are used within this
course:
 The spectrum is a function of one variable, the frequency f (Hz) or the
angular frequency ω = 2πf (rad/s).
 f0 , f1 etc. are used for some fixed frequencies.

 The phase angle is measured with respect to cosine waves or, equivalently
with respect to the positive real axis of the phasor diagram.

 Amplitude is always positive:  A cos(t )  A cos(t  180)

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The complex representation of sinusoidal signal (cont.)
e j e  j
cos(w0t   )  exp( jw0t )  exp(  jw0t )
2 2
Figure 2.15:
(a) Unit length complex variable with positive frequency
(rotating counterclockwise)
(b) unit length complex variable with negative frequency
(rotating clockwise).

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 Two-sided Spectrum
 One-sided spectrum could be used for real signals. In the following
two-sided spectrum is used because it allows to handle also complex signals.
 In the case of real signals, the two-sided spectrum is obtained by using the
substitution: A A
A cos(w0t   )  e j exp( jw0t )  e  j exp(  jw0t )
2 2
 The two-sided spectrum for the previous example is shown in the figure:
w(t )  7e j 2 0t  5e j120e j 2 20t  5e j120e j 2 20t  2e j 90e j 2 60t  2e j 90e j 2 60t

 Here, the basis functions are complex exponentials.

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Phasor Representation
 A complex exponential function can be presented as a phasor which
rotates around the origin
 A real signal corresponds to the real part of the phasor:

A cos( w0t   )  Re[ Ae j ( w0t  ) ]

Phasor representation is
used to illustrate sinusoidal
signals and communication
signals consisting of sinusoids
.

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Phasor Representation (cont.)
 The phasor diagram for the two-sided spectrum of a sinusoid consists of two
vectors whose phase and direction of rotation are reversed. The resultant vector
is a real signal.

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Periodic Signals
 The signal is periodic if
g (t  mT0 )  g (t )    t  
where m is any integer. In this case, the signal can be constructed by combining signal
segments of length T0:

 The length of the periodic signals is infinite, therefore, the signals in the
practical system can not be strictly periodical.
 However, many finite-length signals in practical systems correspond very
accurately to the pure periodic signals.

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Power and average of periodic signals
 The average of a signal is:

t1 T0
Here the notation  means t
T0 1

 The average power of the periodic signal is:

Example:
 v(t )  0 P  A2 / 2

 For periodic signals, it is usually assumed that the power is finite .

0 P
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2.7 THE EXPONENTIAL FOURIER SERIES

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2.7 THE EXPONENTIAL FOURIER SERIES
 The set of exponentials exp(jnω0t) is orthogonal over any interval T0=2π/ω0
0 m  n

T e e dt  T e
jm0t jn0t *
 j ( m  n ) 0 t
dt  
0 0
T0 m  n
 A periodic signal can be written by using the exponential Fourier series

1 1
g (t )   Dn e j 2nf0t
f0  where Dn  
g (t )e  j 2nf0t dt
n   T0 T0 T0
 The complex coefficients Dn can be expressed using the polar form:
Dn  Dn e j arg Dn
| Dn| is the value of the amplitude spectrum at nf0 and
argDn is the corresponding value of the phase spectrum.

 The exponential Fourier series determines the two-sided spectrum for a

periodic signal. It consists of the harmonics (i.e., integer multiples) of the
frequency.

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Properties of the line spectrum
1. All frequencies are integer multiples or harmonics of the fundamental
frequency f0.
2. The DC component D0 (zeroth harmonic) equals the average value of the
signal:
D0  g (t )

3. If g(t) is real, then

Dn  Dn
arg Dn   arg Dn
 which means that the amplitude spectrum has even symmetry and the
phase spectrum has odd symmetry.

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Recall: odd and even symmetry definition
 A function, e(t) has even symmetry if it is a mirror image (symmetric)
about the zero axis, i.e., e(-t) = e(t); a function has odd symmetry if the
reflection about zero has an opposite sign (antisymmetric) where o(-t)
= -o(t).

 Even and odd symmetries are illustrated in below, left and right
figures, respectively:

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 Examples 2.3
 Find the exponential Fourier series for the following signal

Figure 2.13
(a, b) Periodic signal
(c, d) its Fourier spectra

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Examples 2.3

Figure 2.14 Exponential Fourier spectra for the signal in Fig. 2.13a

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Examples 2.4
Find the exponential Fourier series for the periodic square pulse
of the following signal

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Examples 2.5
Find the exponential Fourier series and sketch the corresponding spectra
the following signal

Figure 2.18 (a) Impulse train and (b) its Fourier spectrum.

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Parseval’s Theorem in the Fourier Series
 A periodic signal g(t) is a power signal and every term in its
Fourier series is also a power signal
 Thus for the exponential Fourier series

g (t )  D0   n
D e jn0t

n  , n  0

 The power is given by



D
2
Pg  n
n  

 For a real g(t), |D-n|=| Dn |, thus


Pg  D0  2 Dn
2 2

n 1

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