3F4 Power and Energy Spectral Density

Dr. I. J. Wassell

Power and Energy Spectral Density

The power spectral density (PSD) Sx(w) for a signal is a measure of its power distribution as a function of frequency It is a useful concept which allows us to determine the bandwidth required of a transmission system We will now present some basic results which will be employed later on

PSD
Consider a signal x(t) with Fourier Transform (FT) X(w)
X (w )

x(t )e jwt dt

We wish to find the energy and power distribution of x(t) as a function of frequency

Deterministic Signals
If x(t) is the voltage across a R=1W resistor, the instantaneous power is,
( x(t )) 2 ( x(t )) 2 R

Thus the total energy in x(t) is,

Energy

x(t ) 2 dt

From Parsevals Theorem,

Energy

X (w )

df

Deterministic Signals
So,
Energy

X (w )

df
2

X (2f )

df

Where E(2f) is termed the Energy Density Spectrum (EDS), since the energy of x(t) in the range fo to fo+dfo is,
E ( 2f o )df o

E (2f )df

Deterministic Signals
For communications signals, the energy is effectively infinite (the signals are of unlimited duration), so we usually work with Power quantities We find the average power by averaging over time
1 Average power ( xT (t ))2 dt T T T 2 lim
T 2

Where xT(t) is the same as x(t), but truncated to zero outside the time window -T/2 to T/2

Using Parseval as before we obtain,

Deterministic Signals
lim 1 T 2 Average power ( xT (t ))2 dt T T T 2

lim 1 2 X T (2f ) df T T lim X T (2f ) df T T

2

S x (2f )df
Where Sx(w) is the Power Spectral Density (PSD)

PSD
T T The power dissipated in the range fo to fo+dfo is,
S x (2f o )df o

S x (w )

lim

X T (w )

And Sx(.) has units Watts/Hz

Wiener-Khintchine Theorem
It can be shown that the PSD is also given by the FT of the autocorrelation function (ACF), rxx(t),
S x (w ) rxx (t )e
jwt

dt

Where,

lim 1 2 rxx (t ) x(t ) x(t t )dt T T T

2

Random Signals
The previous results apply to deterministic signals In general, we deal with random signals, eg the transmitted PAM signal is random because the symbols (ak) take values at random Fortunately, our earlier results can be extended to cover random signals by the inclusion of an extra averaging or expectation step, over all possible values of the random signal x(t)

PSD, random signals

lim E[ X T (w ) ] S x (w ) T T
2

Where E[.] is the expectation operator

The W-K result holds for random signals, choosing for x(t) any randomly selected realisation of the signal
Note: Only applies for ergodic signals where the time averages are the same as the corresponding ensemble averages

Linear Systems and Power Spectra

Passing xT(t) through a linear filter H(w) gives the output spectrum,
YT (w ) H (w ) X T (w ) Hence, the output PSD is,
lim E[ YT (w ) ] lim E[ H (w ) X T (w ) ] S y (w ) T T T T 2 E[ X T (w ) ] 2 lim S y (w ) H (w ) T T
2 2

S y (w ) H (w ) S x (w )
2