Signals and Systems: An Introduction

This book covers signals and systems in a step-by-step integrated manner. Particular care is taken with concepts that are often difficult, the mathematics is kept as simple as possible and proofs are supported by intuitive reasoning. The text presents introductory concepts and examines the representation and properties of signals in the time domain, covering systems from the viewpoint of signal transformation and differential and difference equations relating output to input signals. It considers the response of a system to a sinusoidal input signal leading to the concept of the system frequency response function. Coverage of the system frequency response function is extended to cover the Fourier series and Fourier transform representation of both continuous and discrete signals. Also considered is the Laplace-transform as an extension of the Fourier transform and the corresponding z-transform for the discrete case. Finally, the author covers feedback systems, describing how the techniques from previous chapters can be used to predict the performance of such systems.