Lab No 8 Analog & Digital Communication lab

Experiment No: 08
Sampling and Nyquist Rate
Apparatus:
 Oscilloscope
 Sampling and Reconstruction Trainer.
 Power Supply
 Connecting leads

Theory:
Introduction:
Sampling:
In signal processing, sampling is the reduction of a continuous-time signal to a discrete-time
signal. A common example is the conversion of a sound wave (a continuous signal) to a
sequence of samples (a discrete-time signal).
Sample is a piece of data taken from the whole data which is continuous in the time domain.
When a source generates an analog signal and if that has to be digitized, having 1s and 0s i.e.,
High or Low, the signal has to be discretized in time. This discretization of analog signal is
called as Sampling.

The following figure indicates a continuous-time signal x (t) and a sampled signal x s (t). When x
(t) is multiplied by a periodic impulse train, the sampled signal xs (t) is obtained.

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Sampling Rate:
Sampling rate (sometimes called sampling frequency or Fs) is the number of data points acquired
per second. A sampling rate of 2000 samples/second means that 2000 discrete data points are
acquired every second. This can be referred to as 2000 Hertz sample frequency.
Sampling Frequency=1 / Ts
Where
 Ts is the sampling time
 fs is the sampling frequency or the sampling rate

Nyquist sampling rate:

The nyquist sampling rate is two times the highest frequency of the input signal. For instance, if
the input signal has a high-frequency component of 1 kHz, then the sampler must sample at least
2 kHz, or the signal might alias.
Which means,

fs = 2W
In order to have the signal be uniquely reconstructed without aliasing.
Where,
fs is the sampling rate
W is the highest frequency
This rate of sampling is called as Nyquist rate.
A theorem called, Sampling Theorem, was stated on the theory of this Nyquist rate.

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Aliasing:
In signal processing and related disciplines, aliasing is an effect that causes different signals to
become indistinguishable (or aliases of one another) when sampled. It also often refers to the
distortion or artifact that results when a signal reconstructed from samples is different from the
original continuous signal.
In practice, a signal can never be perfectly bandlimited. Even if an ideal reconstruction could be
made, the reconstructed signal would not be exactly the original signal. The error that
corresponds to the failure of band limitation is referred to as aliasing.

Anti-Aliasing Filters:
Anti-aliasing filters allow to remove components above the Nyquist frequency prior to sampling.
Low-frequency aliases are still generated, but at very low amplitude levels and can be
reconstructed without significant additional distortion. In the example above, an anti-aliasing
filter has been used to convert the file at a new sampling rate.

Oversampling:
In signal processing, oversampling is the process of sampling a signal at a sampling frequency
significantly higher than the Nyquist rate. Theoretically, a bandwidth-limited signal can be
perfectly reconstructed if sampled at the Nyquist rate or above it.

fs > 2W

Prefect Sampling:
In signal processing, oversampling is the process of sampling a signal at a sampling frequency
equals to the Nyquist rate.
fs = 2W

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Undersampling:
In signal processing, undersampling or bandpass sampling is a technique where one samples a
bandpass-filtered signal at a sample rate below its Nyquist rate (twice the upper cutoff
frequency).
fs < 2W

Ideal Reconstruction:
• The sampling theorem suggests that a process exists for reconstructing a continuous-time signal
from its samples.
• If we know the sampling rate and know its spectrum then we can reconstruct the continuous-
time signal by scaling the principal alias of the discrete-time signal to the frequency of the
continuous signal.
• The normalized frequency will always be in the range between 0 ~ π and be the principal alias
if the sampling rate is greater than the Nyquist rate.
Perfect reconstruction of a bandlimited continuous time signal from its sampled version is
possible using the Whittaker-Shannon reconstruction formula if the sampling rate is sufficiently
higher than the bandwidth of input signal.

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Observation of Waveforms:

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Procedure:
1) First of all I do all the connections on the trainer.
2) Then connect the CRO with the input and check the waveform.
3) Then I checked the sampling of the waveforms at specific intervals of frequency and
observe the waveforms on CRO.

Conclusion:
As the sampling frequency is increased, the reconstructed output is less distorted and almost
original signal is reconstructed.

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