ECEN 314 Solution to Quiz # 1 Georghiades

Note: Quiz is open-book, 15 minutes long.

1. A linear, time-invariant system, has the following unit-step response:

³ ´
y(t) = e−t − e−2t u(t).

Find the following:

(a) The impulse-response of the system.

(b) The response of the system when the input is:

w(t)
1

1 2 t
-1

Solution

(a) The unit-impulse function is the derivative of the unit-step function and therefore the
impulse response is the derivative of the unit-step response. If we let the impulse response
be h(t), we have:

dy(t)
h(t) =
³ dt ´ ³ ´
= e−t − e−2t δ(t) + −e−t + 2e−2t u(t)
| {z }
³
0 at t=0
´
= 2e−2t − e−t u(t).

The above solution is the fastest for this problem, but not the most general. Since we
now know Laplace transforms, there is a much more general way of solving this problem,
which works in finding the impulse response when one knows any input-output pair of
signals, x(t) and y(t). The approach is as follows:
• Take the Laplace transform of the input x(t) and the output y(t) to yield X(s) and
Y (s), respectively.
• Obtain the transfer function, H(s), by dividing Y (s) by X(s):

Y (s)
H(s) = .
X(s)

• The impulse response, h(t), is the inverse Laplace of H(s), which can be done using
partial-fraction expansion.
Let’s solve the above problem using this more general (and for this problem longer)
approach. We have
1
X(s) = ,
s

1
 and
1 1
Y (s) = − .
s+1 s+2
Then
µ ¶
Y (s) 1 1
H(s) = =s −
X(s) s+1 s+2
s
=
(s + 1)(s + 2)
2 1
= − .
s+2 s+1
Of course, from the first equation above, and using the property of the Laplace transform
that multiplication by s in the Laplace domain corresponds to differentiation in the time-
domain, yields the result obtained above. This is not always the case, though, so ignoring
this fact and expanding into partial fraction expansion we obtain the last equation above.
Taking the inverse Laplace of it, clearly gives the same answer as we obtained above, as
it should: ³ ´
h(t) = 2e−2t − e−t u(t).

(b) We have:
w(t) = u(t) − 2u(t − 1) + u(t − 2).
Therefore, from linearity and time-invariance, the output, z(t), when the input is w(t)
is:

z(t) = y(t) − 2y(t − 1) + y(t − 2)

³ ´ ³ ´ ³ ´
= e−t − e−2t u(t) − 2 e−(t−1) − e−2(t−1) u(t − 1) + e−(t−2) − e−2(t−2) u(t − 2).

2. For discrete-time system, the output y[n] to an input x[n] is given by:
∞
X
y[n] = a[m]x[n − m].
m=−∞

(a) Show that the system is linear and time-invariant.

(b) Under what condition(s) will the system be memoryless?
(c) Under what condition(s) is the system causal?
(d) Find a sufficient condition for the system to be bounded-input bounded-output stable.
Solution

(a) Let
∞
X
y1 [n] = a[m]x1 [n − m]
m=−∞
∞
X
y2 [n] = a[m]x2 [n − m]
m=−∞

2
 be the system outputs when the inputs are x1 [n] and x2 [n] respectively. Then the system
output when the input is x3 [n] = c1 x1 [n] + c2 x2 [n] is:
∞
X
y3 [n] = a[m] (c1 x1 [n − m] + c2 x2 [n − m])
m=−∞
∞
X ∞
X
= c1 a[m]x1 [n − m] + c2 a[m]x2 [n − m]
m=−∞ m=−∞
= c1 y1 [n] + c2 y2 [n]

and thus the system is linear. To show time invariance, we have, we must show the
output to x3 [n] = x[n − n0 ] for some arbitrary n0 is y[n − n0 ]. We have
∞
X
y3 [n] = a[m]x2 [n − n0 − m] = y[n − n0 ],
m=−∞

and thus the system is time-invariant.

(b) For the system to be memoryless, it must be that y[n] = cx[n] for some constant c.
Clearly, the condition for this is that a[n] = cδ[n].
(c) For the system to be causal, the output y[n] must not depend on inputs for times m > n.
This is accomplished if a[n] = 0 for n < 0.
(d) Let |x[n]| ≤ A < ∞ be bounded. Then we must find a condition under which the
corresponding output |y[n]| is bounded. We have
¯ ¯
¯ X
∞ ¯
¯ ¯
|y[n]| = ¯ a[m]x[n − m]¯
¯ ¯
m=−∞
∞
X
≤ |a[m]x[n − m]|
m=−∞
∞
X
= |a[m]||x[n − m]|
m=−∞
X∞
≤ A |a[m]| < ∞.
m=−∞

Thus, a sufficient condition for a stable system is that

∞
X
|a[m]| < ∞.
m=−∞