EE21201: Signals and Systems

Instructor: Prof. Ashish R. Hota

Class Hours: E4 Slot. Wednesday: 12pm - 12:55pm, Thursday: 11am -

11:55am, Friday: 9am - 10:55am
Venue: NR 321
Grading Scheme: 50 % Endsem, 30 % Midsem, 20 % Class Tests, etc.
Preferred Mode of Contact: Send email to ashish.hota@ieee.org with
subject containing [EE21201]. Do not forget to write your name and roll
no. Any email with a blank subject and without name and roll no. will be
ignored.
Class handouts and other materials will be uploaded on my website at https:
//facweb.iitkgp.ac.in/~ahota/signals_systems.html
Reference Books:
1. Primary Reference: Signals and Systems 2nd Edition, by Oppen-
heim, Willsky and Nawab
2. Principles of Linear Systems and Signals, by B. P. Lathi
General expectation: spend 3-4 hours every week to keep up with the lecture,
spend time solving problems yourself rather than watch videos online
Office hours: 5:15pm - 6:00pm every Wednesday
TAs: Tiash, Mahesh
Please choose one of the following two options by 24th July.
– Option A: Attendance will be taken every class and will carry 10% weigh-
tage for the final grade. Proxy will be severely penalized.
– Option B: Attendance will not carry any weightage for the final grade.
– You may revise your choice after between 18th - 25th August, but may
lose points if you go from Option B to Option A.
– Do consider the second order e↵ects of your choice.

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 Overview

A signal represents information or data about a phenomenon of interest.

A system accepts input signals and produces output signals in response.

Examples can be found in many disciplines.

– Electrical:

– Mechanical:

– Chemical and Biological:

– Environmental:

– Economic:

– Social:

– Audio/Visual:

– Computing:

In this subject, we will learn about a set of mathematical tools to represent,

analyze and design a class of signals and systems.

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 What is a signal?

Mathematically, a signal can be regarded as a function of one or more inde-

pendent variables.
Example:
– Voltage signal:
– Image signal:
– Video signal:
In this course: we are dealing with signals that are functions of a single
independent variable (typically time).
Time-dependent signals can be classified into the following two sub-classes:
– Continuous Time (CT)
– Discrete Time (DT)

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 Continuous-time Signals

Continuous-time Signals: Any mapping from real-numbers (time variable

t) to complex numbers
We use notation: x(t), y(t), z(t), . . .:
– reserve time variable t for continuous-time signals’ independent variable
– use parenthesis (·)
Typically, physical quantities or variables are examples of continuous-time
signals.
Examples: ?

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 Discrete-time Signals

Discrete-time Signals: Any mapping from integer-numbers (time variable

n) to complex numbers
We use notation: x[n], y[n], z[n], . . .:
– reserve time variable n for discrete-time signals’ independent variable
– use square bracket [·]
Examples: ?

One can obtain discrete-time signals by sampling continuous-time signals.

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 Systems

Continuous-time system

Discrete-time system

Hybrid system

Dynamical system: any system with an internal state and a rule govering
how the state evolves in time

Example: a car with input being acceleration a(t) and output being velocity
v(t). The evolution of speed is given by
dv
= a(t).
dt
The output is measured by the speedometer sensor. This is an example of
a continuous-time dynamical system.

The field of signal processing studies how to extract desirable features from
given signals, often via design of filters.

The field of control systems studies how to design systems (controllers)

which produce suitable signals to steer the output of a given dynamical
system in a desirable manner.

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 Outline of this subject

Classifications, transformations and basic properties of signals and systems

Time domain analysis of Linear Time-Invariant (LTI) systems
Frequency domain analysis of signals and LTI systems: decomposition and
eigenfunctions.
Sampling, quantization and associated challenges

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 Basic Notations

Notations:
a. Z : the set of integers . . . , 2, 1, 0, 1, 2, . . .
b. R : the set of real numbers
c. C := {(a + jb) | a, b 2 R} the set of complex numbers
A complex number can be identified as a vector on the R2 plane.
p
Notation j := 1
x = a + jb is Cartesian coordinate representation
p
x = rej✓ , where r = a2 + b2 and ✓ =?
is the polar coordinate representation.

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 Transformation of Signals: Time Shift

For any t0 2 R and n0 2 Z, time shift is defined as

x(t) ! x(t t0 ) CT
x[n] ! x[n n0 ] DT

For t0 > 0 (n0 > 0), it is called delay and for t0 < 0 (n0 < 0) it is called
advance.

Example: Suppose that x(t) is given by:

x(t)
2

t
3 2 1 1 2 3

What would be x(t 1)?

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 Transformation of Signals: Time Reversal

Time reversal is defined as

x(t) ! x( t)
x[n] ! x[ n],

Interpretation: Flipping over y-axis

How does x( t) look like in this example?

x(t)
2

t
3 2 1 1 2 3

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 Transformation of CT Signals: Time Scaling

For CT Signals, time-scaling by a factor a > 0 is defined as

x(t) ! x(at), a > 0.

If a > 1 it is called Decimation (squeezing/compression)

If 1 > a > 0, it is called Expansion (enlarging)
If a < 0, we get a reversed compressed/expanded signal
Class activity: How does x(2t) and x(t/2) look like in the above example?

x(t)
2

t
3 2 1 1 2 3

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 Time Scaling: Discrete Time

Decimation: For a DT Signal, and an integer factor M 1, the decimated

signal is defined by:

yD [n] = x[M n].

Expansion: For an integer L 1, the discrete-time expanded signal (by a

factor L) is:
( ⇥ ⇤
x Ln , n = integer multiple of L
yE [n] =
0, otherwise.

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 Linear-Time Transformation

Often we are interested in the transformation x(t) ! x(at b)

It is indeed a combination of time shift and time-scaling (order matters):
1. Define v(t) = x(t b),
2. Define y(t) = v(at) = x(at b).
So x(t) ! x(at b) is equivalent to time-delay then scale!

If you scale first, and then do the delay, what do you obtain?

Example: Plot the signal x( t + 2) for the signal x(t) as bellow,

x(t)
2

t
3 2 1 1 2 3

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 Signal Categories: Even/Odd Signals

Definition 1. A CT (DT) signal x(t) (x[n]) is even if

x( t) = x(t) (x[ n] = x[n]),

for all t (n).

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2 1 1 2

Definition 2. A CT (DT) signal x(t) (x[n]) is odd if

x( t) = x(t) (x[ n] = x[n]).

2 1 1 2
5

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 Examples of Even/Odd Signals

Is x[n] = n3 even or odd?

Is x[n] = n3 n2 1 even or odd?

x[n]
10

n
3 2 1 1 2 3
10

20

30

Figure 1: Plot of signal x[n] = n3 n2 1

n3 + ( n2 1).
But x[n] = |{z}
| {z }
xodd [n] xeven [n]

Can we do this for any signal, i.e. write down any signal as x(t) = xeven (t)+
xodd (t)?
Answer: yes!

Even/Odd Decomposition: For any CT signal x(t) we can write:

x(t) = xe (t) + xo (t),

where xe (t) = x(t)+x(

2
t)
is even and xo (t) = x(t) x( t)
2 is odd.
For any DT signal x[n] we can write:

x[n] = xe [n] + xo [n],

x[n]+x[ n] x[n] x[ n]
where xe [n] = 2 is even and xo [n] = 2 is odd.

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 Periodic and Aperiodic Signals

Continuous Time: x(t) is periodic with period T > 0 if x(t + T ) = x(t) for
all time t.
Fundamental period and frequency:
– smallest T > 0 that satisfies this is called the fundamental period
2⇡
– for the fundamental period T , !0 = T is called the fundamental fre-
quency. Unit: radian/second
1
– frequency f = 1/T has unit second or Hertz (Hz)
Discrete Time: x[n] is periodic with period N > 0 if x[n + N ] = x[n] for
all integer n. N needs to be an integer.
Fundamental period and frequency:
– smallest N > 0 that satisfies this is called the fundamental period
2⇡
– for the fundamental period N0 , !0 = N0 is called the fundamental fre-
quency.
If a signal is not periodic, we call it an aperiodic signal.
Examples: x(t) = sin(!t) and x[n] = sin(!n).

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 Periodic and Aperiodic Signals

Clicker Question: What can we say about the periodicity of the following signals:
✓ 2◆
⇡t
x(t) = cos ,
8
✓ 2◆
⇡n
x[n] = cos .
8
a. x(t) is periodic, but x[n] is aperiodic.
b. x(t) is aperiodic, and x[n] is aperiodic.
c. x(t) is aperiodic, but x[n] is periodic.
d. x(t) is periodic, but x[n] is periodic.

1
1
0.5
0.5
2 4 6 8 10
10 5 5 10 0.5
0.5
1

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 Energy and Power of a Signal

Remember: Instantaneous power of a resistor: p(t) = v(t)i(t) = R1 v 2 (t)

v(t) R

R t2
Energy: power consumption over time = t1 p(t)dt

Motivated by these: We DEFINE the energy of a CT signal x(t) over [t1 , t2 ]

interval by:
Z t2
E[t1 ,t2 ] = |x(t)|2 dt,
t1

where |x(t)| is the magnitude of the (complex-valued) signal at time t.

We define the energy of a DT signal x[n] over [n1 , n2 ] interval by:
n2
X
E[n1 ,n2 ] = |x[n]|2 .
n=n1

We define average power of a signal:

– Continuous-time: x(t) over continuous interval (t1 , t2 ) is:
Z t2
1 1
P = E[t1 ,t2 ] = |x(t)|2 dt.
t2 t1 t 2 t 1 t1

– Discrete-time: x[n] over discrete interval [n1 , n2 ] is:

Xn2
1 1
P = E[n ,n ] = |x[n]|2 .
n2 n1 + 1 1 2 n2 n1 + 1 n=n
1

The above definitions may not always correspond to the physical notion of
energy or power, rather represent the size of the signal.

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 Total Energy of a Signal

We define the total energy and average power of

– a continuous-time signal x(t) to be
Z T
E1 = lim |x(t)|2 dt,
T !1 T
Z T
1
P1 = lim |x(t)|2 dt,
T !1 2T T

– a discrete-time signal x[n] to be

N
X
E1 = lim |x[n]|2
N !1
n= N
N
X
1
P1 = lim |x[n]|2
N !1 2N + 1
n= N

We say that a signal is finite energy if E1 < 1.

We say that a signal has finite average power if P1 < 1.
There could also be signals which have neither finite energy nor finite power.
Example: Find the total energy and power of the signals x1 (t) = 1, x2 (t) = t,
x3 (t) = e t for t 0 and x3 (t) = 0 for t < 0, and x4 (t) = e (1+j)t ?

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