Downsampling
A slecture by ECE student Yerkebulan Yeshmukhanbetov
Partly based on the ECE438 Fall 2014 lecture material of Prof. Mireille Boutin.
Contents
Outline
- Introduction
- Derivation
- Example
- Conclusion
- References
Introduction
This slecture demonstrates downsampled signal in frequency domain. Also, it explains process of decimation and why it needs
a low-pass filter.
Derivation
Let x[n] be a digital-time signal shown below:
GRAPH
then y[n] is produced by downsampling x [n] by factor D = 3. So, y [n] = x[Dn].
GRAPH
Nyquist Theorem: A signal x(t) that has the property X(f) = 0 for $ |f| \ge f_M $ can be perfectly reconstructed from its sampling xs(t) if sampled at a rate fs > 2fM.
To prove that perfect reconstruction is possible, we must find an expression for x(t) in terms of xs(t).
Given that $ \mathcal{F}(x(t)) = X(f) $, we can find Xs(f) using the convolution property.
$ \begin{align} X_s(f) &= X(f)*\mathcal{F}(p_{\frac{1}{f_s}})\\ &= X(f)*\mathcal{F}(\sum_{k = -\infty}^\infty \delta(t-\frac{k}{f_s}))\\ &= X(f)*f_s\sum_{k = -\infty}^\infty \delta(f-kf_s)\\ &= f_s\sum_{k = -\infty}^\infty X(f)*\delta(t-\frac{k}{f_s})\\ &= f_s\sum_{k = -\infty}^\infty X(f-kf_s)\\ \end{align} $
Without loss of generality, we can assume that the signal x(t) has the spectrum shown in the figure below. The shape of the graph of X(f) does not matter because the only important feature of X(f) is that X(f) = 0 for $ |f| \ge f_M $.
We would like to determine what Xs(f) looks like in order to find a way to reconstruct x(t).
Since we have sampled at a rate fs > 2fM, the following inequalities hold:
$ f_s > 2f_M \iff f_s - f_M > f_M \iff -f_s + f_M < f_M $.
Together, these inequalities, the graph of X(f), and the expression for Xs(f) in terms of X(f) imply that Xs(f) will have the spectrum shown in the figure below.
Notice that the spectrum of the ideal sampling of a signal is an amplitude scaled periodic repetition of the original spectrum. Since x(t) is bandlimited and we have sampled at a rate fs > 2fM, the periodic repetitions of X(f) do not overlap.
All the information needed to reconstruct X(f) can be found in the portion of Xs(f) that corresponds to X(f) (shown in red). Therefore we can use a simple lowpass filter with gain $ \tfrac{1}{f_s} $ and cutoff frequency $ \tfrac{f_s}{2} $ to recover X(f) from Xs(f).
$ X(f) = X_s(f)\left\{ \begin{array}{ll} \frac{1}{f_s}, & |f| \le \frac{f_s}{2}\\ 0, & \text{else} \end{array} \right. $
$ \iff x(t) = x_s(t)*\text{sinc}(f_st) $
$ \therefore $ We can perfectly reconstruct x(t) from xs(t).
Example
Though the Nyquist theorem states that perfect reconstruction is possible if we satisfy the Nyquist condition (fs > 2fM), it is important to note that this condition is not necessary. The following example demonstrates how perfect reconstruction is sometimes possible even when undersampling.
Let the signal x(t) have a spectrum X(f) as seen in the figure below.
The Nyquist condition states that we should sample at a rate fs > 2(2a) = 4a. Instead, let us sample at fs = 2a.
As before, we have $ x_s(t) = x(t)p_{\frac{1}{f_s}}(t) $ and $ X_s(f) = f_s\sum_{k = -\infty}^\infty X(f-kf_s) $
$ \implies X_s(f) = 2a\sum_{k = -\infty}^\infty X(f-2ka) $.
Therefore, Xs(f) will have the spectrum shown in the figure below.
Notice that there is no aliasing in Xs(f) even though fs < 4a. In addition, the portion of Xs(f) that corresponds to X(f) (shown in red) can be recovered using a bandpass filter with gain $ \tfrac{1}{2a} $ and cutoff frequencies a and 2a.
Conclusion
To summarize, the Nyquist theorem states that any bandlimited signal can be perfectly reconstructed from its sampling if sampled at a rate greater than twice its bandwidth (fs > 2fM). However, the Nyquist condition is not necessary for perfect reconstruction as shown in the example above.
References
[1] John G. Proakis, Dimitris G. Manolakis, "Digital Signal Processing with Principles, Algorithms, and Applications" 4th Edition,2006
Questions and comments
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