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Lecture I: Signal classification

This lecture starts with the definition of a signal and then the definition of a system.
Later, various types of signals are discussed. This is not a text book. It is just a collection
of sentences delivered to the students in a class room. Hence it is recommended to
diligently follow the prescribed text books for a formal understanding of the course.

1.1 Signal definition:

Let us first have some examples of signals. The signal can be the pressure or the
temperature or the humidity of atmosphere. It can be the mass, velocity or acceleration
of a vehicle. It can represent the altitude, azimuth, speed of an aircraft. The signal may
be the voltage generated or the speed of rotation of the motor. The signal can be the
hemoglobin concentration, pressure of human blood. It may be the electrocardiograph
(ECG), computed tomography (CT scan) image, blood sugar level of an individual. The
signal could be the viscosity, elasticity of a fluid. It could be the audio or video signal
commercially broadcast by select organizations. It can be simple voice transmitted over
the telephone or the mobile phone. The list of possible signals is endless. The few
examples just cited are all functions of time. A signal may be defined as a single valued
function of time.

The source of these signals is from various engineering disciplines. Invariably they need
to be monitored, analyzed and maintained at desired values. Today the signal acquisition,
processing and monitoring are all done using electronic circuits, microcontrollers,
microprocessors or the computers. Simple transducers can be used to convert the signal
contained in the originating domain to the electronic domain. Hence, with the signal
representing a variable varying with time, and with further interest in processing this
signal using electronic devices, we hence forth assume the signal is invariably in the
electronic domain, which is either the voltage or the current. Throughout this course a
signal represents the voltage or the current as a function of time. It needs to be
emphasized that the signal has been converted from the parent domain to the electronic

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domain for monitoring and analysis and will be later reconverted to the desired parent
domain.

1.2 System definition:

A system is a device which transforms signals. It accepts a signal and produces another
signal at its output. We give the signal to a system, because the output signal is in some
way more desirable than its input. Some examples of the system are: the telephone, the
mobile phone, the television, the barometer, the altimeter, the speedometer, the air
conditioner, the water level controller etc.

1.3 Course Overview:

Having defined the signal and the system, it can be observed that signals exist
everywhere. Signals and systems are present in all domains, and hence in all branches of
Engineering. This course helps in understanding, analyzing and designing various
systems around us. It lays the foundation for various other courses.

The course starts off with the classification of various signals and systems (Unit I). Later,
a time domain analysis is attempted (Units II & III). This is followed by Fourier analysis
of various types of signals and systems (Units IV, V & VI). Finally, the Z-domain
analysis of discrete time signals and systems is carried out (Units VII & VIII). After this
brief introduction, on signal definition, we shall classify signals.

2.0 Signal Classification:

We have seen that the signal can be defined as a single-valued quantity that varies with
time. Although the quantity represented may be any physical parameter, throughout this
course the signal will be used to represent either the voltage or the current, (as it is
possible to change the parameter from the parent domain to the electrical domain using

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transducers). Signals may be classified as continuous/discrete, periodic/non-periodic,

even/odd, energy/power and deterministic/random.

2.1 Continuous time/Discrete time signals:

A continuous-time signal is defined for all instants of time, the independent variable. In
figure 1.1(a), we have sketched an arbitrary signal x(t ) . It can be seen that both the
signal and time can vary continuously. A discrete time signal on the other hand is
defined only for discrete instants of time.

Figure 1.1: Example: (a) a continuous time signal, and (b) a discrete time signal

Figure 1.1(b) has a typical discrete time signal x[n] , with n allowed to take on only
integral values. It is to be noted that the signal x[n] , is not defined for non-integral
values of n . A discrete time signal may represent a discrete time process (like the
number of students in each class), or can be obtained by sampling the continuous time
signal. In the example of figure 1.1(b), sequence x[n] is obtained by sampling x(t ) of
figure 1.1(a), with a sampling interval of 2 seconds. Although the sampling interval may
be non-integral, n has to be an integer.

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2.2 Periodic / non-periodic signals:

A continuous-time signal x(t ) is said to be periodic with period T , if

x(t ) = x(t + T ) for all t (1.1)
The smallest value of T , for which equation (1.1) is satisfied is known as the
fundamental period. If there is no T , for which equation (1.1) holds, then the signal is
said to be non-periodic. A signal x(t ) has to be either periodic or non-periodic. Figure
1.2 has plots of few periodic signals. Figure 1.3 has plots of periodic sinusoidal signals
and their combinations. The sum or product of periodic signals is again periodic, but
with a changed period.

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Figure 1.2: Examples of continuous time periodic signals: (a) sine wave, (b) cosine wave, (c)
triangular signal and (d) square wave. They are periodic with period 1, 0.5, 0.25 and 0.25
seconds respectively.

Figure 1.3: Examples of continuous time periodic signals obtained as: (a) the sum and (b) the
product of two sinusoids. Both have a fundamental period of1 second.

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In general, a continuous time sinusoidal signal can be represented as sin(2π ft ) , where f

is the frequency in Hertz, and ω the angular frequency in radians/second is given by
ω = 2π f . The signal is of period T = 1 f seconds. All continuous time sinusoidal
signals are periodic. It can be seen that sin(ωt ) , cos(ωt ) and exp( jωt ) , are all periodic
and have the same period.

A discrete-time signal x[n] is said to be periodic with period N , if

x[n] = x[n + N ] for all n (1.2)
The smallest value of N , for which equation (1.2) is satisfied is known as the
fundamental period. If there is no integer N , for which the above equation is satisfied,
the signal is said to be non-periodic.
We can obtain a discrete time signal x[n] , by sampling a continuous time sinusoid. If
x[n] = sin[Ωn] , it is periodic with period N , only if the angular frequency Ω can be
2π m
represented as Ω = , where both m and N are integers. Hence not all discrete time
N
sequences obtained by sampling the continuous time sinusoid are periodic. (Example:

sin[10n] , cos ⎡⎣ 2π n ⎤⎦ , exp ⎡⎣ jπ 2 n ⎤⎦ are all non-periodic discrete time sequences). Figure

1.4 has plots of discrete time periodic signals obtained as samples of the continuous time
sinusoid.

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Figure 1.4: Plots of discrete time periodic signals obtained by sampling the continuous time
cosine waveform for different angular frequency Ω . (a), (b), (c) and (d) have fundamental period
of 2, 3, 4 and 14 respectively.

2.3 Even / odd / neither signals:

A continuous-time signal x(t ) is even if,

x(t ) = x(−t ) for all t (1.3)
The signal is odd if,

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x(t ) = − x(−t ) for all t (1.4)

Hence even signals are symmetric about the vertical axis, and the odd signals are anti-
symmetric about the vertical axis. When the signal x(t ) is neither even nor odd, it can be
expressed as a sum of even and odd components given by,
x(t ) = xo (t ) + x e (t ) (1.5a)
where,
1
xe (t ) = ( x(t ) + x(−t ) ) (1.5b)
2
1
xo (t ) = ( x(t ) − x(−t ) ) (1.5c)
2

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Figure 1.5: Representing a signal x(t ) as the sum of an odd and an even signal.

A discrete-time signal x[n] is even if,

x[n] = x[−n] for all n (1.6)
The signal is odd if,
x[n] = − x[−n] for all n (1.7)
Hence even signals are symmetric about the vertical axis, and the odd signals are anti-
symmetric about the vertical axis. When the signal x[n] is neither even nor odd, it can be
expressed as a sum of even and odd components given by,
x[n] = xo [n] + x e [n] (1.8a)
where,
1
xe [n] = ( x[n] + x[−n]) (1.8b)
2
1
xo [n] = ( x[n] − x[−n]) (1.8c)
2

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Figure 1.6: Expressing a signal x[n] as the sum of an odd and an even signal.

2.4 Energy/ Power signals:

With the assumption that our signals represent voltage or current, when applied to a 1
ohm resistor, the instantaneous power p (t ) developed across the resistor, is given by

p(t ) = x 2 (t ) (1.9)
We then have the average power P , of the signal as

T /2
1
T →∞ T ∫
P = Lim x 2 (t )dt (1.10)
−T / 2

While the total energy E is given by

∞
E= ∫ x (t )dt
2
(1.11)
−∞

Similarly, the average power P , of the discrete signal is given by

N −1
1
P = Lim
N →∞ N
∑ x [ n]
n=0
2
(1.12)

While the total energy E of the discrete time signal is given by

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∞
E= ∑ x [ n]
n =−∞
2
(1.13)

A signal is an energy signal if its energy E is finite, i.e., it lies in the range 0 < E < ∞ .
The signal is a power signal if its average power P is finite, i.e., it lies in the range
0< P<∞.

(a)

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(b)

Figure 1.7: Computation of the energy and power of a signal: (a) continuous-time periodic and
(b) continuous-time non-periodic.

(a)

(b)
Figure 1.8: Computation of the energy and power of a signal: (a) discrete-time periodic and (b)
discrete-time non-periodic.

In figures 1.7 and 1.8, we have computed the energy and power of a few signals. It can be
seen that the periodic signals have finite power and infinite energy, while the non-

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periodic signals have zero power and finite energy. In general energy signals have zero
average power, and power signals have infinite energy. Hence all periodic signals are
power signals and non-periodic signals are energy signals.

2.5 Deterministic /Random signals:

Deterministic signals can be explicitly represented as functions of time as in all examples

seen. However, random signals cannot be specified as functions of time. They can be
specified in terms of their statistical averages (mean, variance, etc.). It is not correct to
plot them as signals either. Yet, in figure 1.9 we have an example of a random signal
generated by a computer program with a specified distribution and average properties. It
is to be noted that each execution of the program will result in different signals, as it is a
random process. It has been conventional to represent the energy signals as power
signals. Random signals are encountered in real life as the unwanted noise accompanying
the desired signals.

Figure 1.9: Examples of random signals.

3.0 Summarize:

This lecture has the definition of a signal and then the definition of a system, and a brief
overview of the course. Next, different methods of classifying the single-valued, real time

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signals is attempted. Although we have attempted classification in five different groups,

these groups are not mutually exclusive. The even/odd classification is not exactly true
in the sense that, a given signal may not belong to either category, and in such a case, we
can realize the signal as a combination of the even and odd components. The
classification as energy /power is again an attempt to compute the energy and power of
signals which are periodic/non-periodic, i.e., once we have classified the signal as
periodic, it has to be a power signal, similarly, if the signal is non-periodic it has to be an
energy signal. Again, the classification as deterministic or random, defines its energy and
power. While deterministic signals may be energy or power signals, which depend on
their periodicity, random signals are power signals. Random signals are mathematically
represented by their statistical averages, as their explicit function of time is unknown (We
can obtain the power spectrum of random signals).

Hence, to summarize, there are essentially only two classifications: continuous-time /

discrete-time and periodic/non-periodic, which implies the existence of four types of
signals. Accordingly, later during the course when we attempt obtaining the Fourier
components of a signal, we shall do it for each of these signal types: continuous-time-
periodic (Fourier Series, FS), continuous-time-non-periodic (Fourier Transform, FT),
discrete-time-periodic (Discrete Time Fourier Series, DTFS), discrete-time-non-periodic
(Discrete Time Fourier Transform, DTFT). Finally, we obtain the Fourier transform for
these four signal types, i.e., we relate the FT to the FS, DTFS, DTFT.
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