Peak-to-Average Power Ratio and CCDF

Peak to Average Power Ratio (PAPR) is often used to characterize digitally modulated signals. One example application is setting the level of the signal in a digital modulator. Knowing PAPR allows setting the average power to a level that is just low enough to minimize clipping.

Digital PLL's - Part 2

In Part 1, we found the time response of a 2nd order PLL with a proportional + integral (lead-lag) loop filter. Now let's look at this PLL in the Z-domain.

The Swiss Army Knife of Digital Networks

This article describes a general discrete-signal network that appears, in various forms, inside so many DSP applications.

Digital PLL's -- Part 1

We will use Matlab to model the DPLL in the time and frequency domains (Simulink is also a good tool for modeling a DPLL in the time domain). Part 1 discusses the time domain model; the frequency domain model will be covered in Part 2. The frequency domain model will allow us to calculate the loop filter parameters to give the desired bandwidth and damping, but it is a linear model and cannot predict acquisition behavior. The time domain model can be made almost identical to the gate-level system, and as such, is able to model acquisition.

Decimator Image Response

This article presents a way to compute and plot the image response of a decimator. I'm defining the image response as the unwanted spectrum of the impulse response after downsampling, relative to the desired passband response.

Filter a Rectangular Pulse with no Ringing

To filter a rectangular pulse without any ringing, there is only one requirement on the filter coefficients: they must all be positive. However, if we want the leading and trailing edge of the pulse to be symmetrical, then the coefficients must be symmetrical. What we are describing is basically a window function.

Digital Envelope Detection: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly

Recently I've been thinking about the process of envelope detection. Tutorial information on this topic is readily available but that information is spread out over a number of DSP textbooks and many Internet web sites. The purpose of this blog is to summarize various digital envelope detection methods in one place. Here I focus of envelope detection as it is applied to an amplitude-fluctuating sinusoidal signal where the positive-amplitude fluctuations (the sinusoid's envelope) contain some sort of information. Let's begin by looking at the simplest envelope detection method.

Python For Audio Signal Processing

This paper discusses the use of Python for developing audio signal processing applications. Overviews of Python language, NumPy, SciPy and Matplotlib are given, which together form a powerful platform for scientific computing. We then show how SciPy was used to create two audio programming libraries, and describe ways that Python can be integrated with the SndObj library and Pure Data, two existing environments for music composition and signal processing.

Lecture Notes on Elliptic Filter Design

Elliptic filters, also known as Cauer or Zolotarev filters, achieve the smallest filter order for the same specifications, or, the narrowest transition width for the same filter order, as compared to other filter types. On the negative side, they have the most nonlinear phase response over their passband. In these notes, we are primarily concerned with elliptic filters. But we will also discuss briefly the design of Butterworth, Chebyshev-1, and Chebyshev-2 filters and present a unified method of designing all cases. We also discuss the design of digital IIR filters using the bilinear transformation method.

Optimizing the Half-band Filters in Multistage Decimation and Interpolation

This article discusses a not so well-known rule regarding the filtering in multistage decimation and interpolation by an integer power of two.

C++ Tutorial

This tutorial is for those people who want to learn programming in C++ and do not necessarily have any previous knowledge of other programming languages. Of course any knowledge of other programming languages or any general computer skill can be useful to better understand this tutorial, although it is not essential. It is also suitable for those who need a little update on the new features the language has acquired from the latest standards. If you are familiar with the C language, you can take the first 3 parts of this tutorial as a review of concepts, since they mainly explain the C part of C++. There are slight differences in the C++ syntax for some C features, so I recommend you its reading anyway. The 4th part describes object-oriented programming. The 5th part mostly describes the new features introduced by ANSI-C++ standard.

Digital Signal Processor Fundamentals and System Design

Digital Signal Processors (DSPs) have been used in accelerator systems for more than fifteen years and have largely contributed to the evolution towards digital technology of many accelerator systems, such as machine protection, diagnostics and control of beams, power supply and motors. This paper aims at familiarising the reader with DSP fundamentals, namely DSP characteristics and processing development. Several DSP examples are given, in particular on Texas Instruments DSPs, as they are used in the DSP laboratory companion of the lectures this paper is based upon. The typical system design flow is described; common difficulties, problems and choices faced by DSP developers are outlined; and hints are given on the best solution.

A Simplified Matlab Function for Power Spectral Density

In an earlier post, I showed how to compute power spectral density (PSD) of a discrete-time signal using the Matlab function pwelch.  Pwelch is a useful function because it gives the correct output, and it has the option to average multiple Discrete Fourier Transforms (DFTs).  However, a typical function call has five arguments, and it can be hard to remember how to set them all and how they default.

In this post, I create a simplified PSD function by putting a wrapper on pwelch that sets some parameters and converts the output units from W/Hz to dBW/bin.  The function is named psd_simple.m, and its code is listed in the appendix.

The Art of VA Filter Design

The book covers the theoretical and practical aspects of the virtual analog filter design in the music DSP context. Only a basic amount of DSP knowledge is assumed as a prerequisite. For digital musical instrument and effect developers.

Optimizing the Half-band Filters in Multistage Decimation and Interpolation

This article discusses a not so well-known rule regarding the filtering in multistage decimation and interpolation by an integer power of two.

Complex Digital Signal Processing in Telecommunications

Digital Signal Processing (DSP) is a vital tool for scientists and engineers, as it is of fundamental importance in many areas of engineering practice and scientific research. The "alphabet" of DSP is mathematics and although most practical DSP problems can be solved by using real number mathematics, there are many others which can only be satisfactorily resolved or adequately described by means of complex numbers. If real number mathematics is the language of real DSP, then complex number mathematics is the language of complex DSP. In the same way that real numbers are a part of complex numbers in mathematics, real DSP can be regarded as a part of complex DSP (Smith, 1999). Complex mathematics manipulates complex numbers - the representation of two variables as a single number - and it may appear that complex DSP has no obvious connection with our everyday experience, especially since many DSP problems are explained mainly by means of real number mathematics. Nonetheless, some DSP techniques are based on complex mathematics, such as Fast Fourier Transform (FFT), z-transform, representation of periodical signals and linear systems, etc. However, the imaginary part of complex transformations is usually ignored or regarded as zero due to the inability to provide a readily comprehensible physical explanation. One well-known practical approach to the representation of an engineering problem by means of complex numbers can be referred to as the assembling approach: the real and imaginary parts of a complex number are real variables and individually can represent two real physical parameters. Complex math techniques are used to process this complex entity once it is assembled. The real and imaginary parts of the resulting complex variable preserve the same real physical parameters. This approach is not universally-applicable and can only be used with problems and applications which conform to the requirements of complex math techniques. Making a complex number entirely mathematically equivalent to a substantial physical problem is the real essence of complex DSP. Like complex Fourier transforms, complex DSP transforms show the fundamental nature of complex DSP and such complex techniques often increase the power of basic DSP methods. The development and application of complex DSP are only just beginning to increase and for this reason some researchers have named it theoretical DSP. It is evident that complex DSP is more complicated than real DSP. Complex DSP transforms are highly theoretical and mathematical; to use them efficiently and professionally requires a large amount of mathematics study and practical experience. Complex math makes the mathematical expressions used in DSP more compact and solves the problems which real math cannot deal with. Complex DSP techniques can complement our understanding of how physical systems perform but to achieve this, we are faced with the necessity of dealing with extensive sophisticated mathematics. For DSP professionals there comes a point at which they have no real choice since the study of complex number mathematics is the foundation of DSP.

The DFT Magnitude of a Real-valued Cosine Sequence

This article may seem a bit trivial to some readers here but, then again, it might be of some value to DSP beginners. It presents a mathematical proof of what is the magnitude of an N-point discrete Fourier transform (DFT) when the DFT's input is a real-valued sinusoidal sequence.

Digital Filtering in the Frequency Domain

Time domain digital filtering, whether implemented using FIR or IIR techniques, has been very well documented in literature and been thoroughly used in many base band processor designs. However, with the advent of software defined radios as well as CPU support in more recent baseband processors, it has become possible and often desirable to filter signals in software rather than digital hardware. Whereas, time domain digital filtering can certainly be implemented in software as well, it becomes highly inefficient as the number of filter taps grows. Frequency domain filtering, using FFT and IFFT operations, is significantly more efficient and surprisingly easy to understand. This document introduces the reader to frequency domain filtering both in theory and in practice via a MatLab script.

Peak-to-Average Power Ratio and CCDF

Peak to Average Power Ratio (PAPR) is often used to characterize digitally modulated signals. One example application is setting the level of the signal in a digital modulator. Knowing PAPR allows setting the average power to a level that is just low enough to minimize clipping.

The Swiss Army Knife of Digital Networks

This article describes a general discrete-signal network that appears, in various forms, inside so many DSP applications.