Digital Signal Processing: Sampling Rates, Bandwidth,

Spectral Lines, and more…

PJS
Siemens Legend
04-13-2017 03:33 PM

*** On-Demand Webinar: Digital Signal Processing Fundamentals ***

During digital data acquisition, transducers output analog signals which must be digitized for a
computer.  A computer cannot store continuous analog time waveforms like the transducers
produce, so instead it breaks the signal into discrete ‘pieces’ or ‘samples’ to store them.

Data is recorded in the time domain, but often it is desired to perform a Fourier transform to
view the data in the frequency domain. There are unique terms used when performing a Fourier
transform on this digitized data, which are not always used in the analog case.  They are listed in
Figure 1 below:

 
Figure 1: Time domain and frequency domain terms used in performing a digital Fourier
transformWhether viewing digital data in the time domain or in the frequency domain,
understanding the relationship between these different terms affects the quality of the final
analysis. 

Time Domain Terms

 Sampling Rate (Fs) – Number of data samples acquired per second

 Frame Size (T) – Amount of time data collected to perform a Fourier transform
 Block Size (N) – Total number of data samples acquired during one frame

Frequency Domain Terms

 Bandwidth (Fmax) – Highest frequency that is captured in the Fourier transform, equal to
half the sampling rate
 Spectral Lines (SL)– After Fourier transform, total number of frequency domain samples
 Frequency Resolution (Δf) – Spacing between samples in the frequency domain

Sampling Rate (Fs)

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.

The sampling rate is important for determining the maximum amplitude and correct waveform of
the signal as shown in Figure 2. 

Figure 2: In the top graph, the 10 Hertz sine wave sampled at 1000 samples/second has correct
amplitude and waveform. In the other plots, lower sample rates do not yield the correct
amplitude nor shape of the sine waveTo get close to the correct peak amplitude in the time
domain, it is important to sample at least 10 times faster than the highest frequency of interest. 
For a 100 Hertz sine wave, the minimum sampling rate would be 1000 samples per second. In
practice, sampling even higher than 10x helps measure the amplitude correctly in the time
domain.

It should be noted that obtaining the correct amplitude in the frequency domain only requires
sampling twice the highest frequency of interest.  In practice, the anti-aliasing filter in most data
acquisition systems makes the requirement 2.5 times the frequency of interest. The Bandwidth
section contains more information about the anti-aliasing filter.

 
The inverse of sampling frequency (Fs) is the sampling interval or Δt.  It is the amount of time
between data samples collected in the time domain as shown in Figure 3.

  Figure 3: Sampling frequency and sampling interval

relationship

The smaller the quantity Δt, the better the chance of measuring the true peak in the time domain.

Block Size (N)

The block size (N) is the total number of time data points that are captured to perform a Fourier
transform.  A block size of 2000 means that two thousand data points are acquired, then a
Fourier transform is performed.

Frame Size (T)

The frame size is the total time (T) to acquire one block of data. The frame size is the block size
divided by sample frequency as shown in Figure 4.

 
 Figure 4: Frame size (T) equals block size (N) divided by sample
frequency (Fs)

For example, with a block size of 2000 data points and a sampling rate of 1000 samples per
second, the total time to acquire a single data block is 2 seconds. It takes two seconds to collect
2000 data points.

The total time frame size is also equal to the block size times the time resolution (Figure 5).

Figure 5: Frame size (T) equals block size (N) time the time
resolution (t)

When performing averages on multiple blocks of data, the term total amount of time might be
used in different ways (Figure 6) and should not be confused:

 Total Time to Acquire One Block – The frame size (T) is the time to acquire one data
block, for example, this could be two seconds
 Total Time to Average – If five blocks of data (two seconds each) are to be averaged, the
total time to acquire all five blocks (with no overlap) would be 10 seconds

 
Figure 6: Five averages of 2 second frames

The 'Throughput Processing knowledge base article' further explains the interaction between
frames and averages.

Bandwidth (Fmax)

The bandwidth (Fmax) is the maximum frequency that can be analyzed.  The bandwidth is half of
the sampling frequency (Figure 7).  The Nyquist sampling criterion requires setting the sampling
rate at least twice the maximum frequency of interest. 

Figure 7: Bandwidth, or the

maximum frequency, is half the sample frequency (Fs)

A bandwidth of 1000 Hertz means that the sampling frequency is set to 2000 samples/second.

In fact, even with a sampling rate of 2000 Hz, the actual usable bandwidth can be less than the
theoretical limit of 1000 Hertz. This is because in many data acquisition systems, there is an anti-
aliasing filter which starts reducing the amplitude of the signal starting at 80% of the bandwidth.
 Figure
8 - At 80% of the bandwidth, a anti-aliasing filter starts reducing the amplitude of the incoming
signals. The 'Span' represents the frequency range without any anti-aliasing filter effects.

For a bandwidth of 1000 Hertz, the anti-aliasing filter reduces the bandwidth to 800 Hertz and
below. The filter attenuates frequencies above 800 Hertz in this case.

In Simcenter Testlab, under ‘Tools -> Options -> General’, it is possible to view only the
usable bandwidth by switching to ‘Span’ under ‘Frequency’ as shown in Figure 9.

 
 Figure 9:
Under ‘Tools -> Options -> General’ switch to ‘Span’ instead of ‘Bandwidth’ if desired ‘Span’
represents the actual useable bandwidth, and the switching to the ‘Span’ setting makes all
the Simcenter Testlab displays show only 80% of the bandwidth.

Spectral Lines (SL)

After performing a Fourier transform, the spectral lines (SL) are the total number of frequency
domain data points.  This is analogous to N, the number of data points in the time domain. There
are two data ‘values’ at each spectral line – an amplitude and a phase value as shown in Figure
10. 

  
 Fi
gure 10: At each frequency there is an amplitude (top graph) and phase (bottom graph)

Note that while the Fourier Transform results in amplitude and phase, sometimes the frequency
spectrum is converted to an autopower, which eliminates the phase.

The number of spectral lines is half the block size (Figure 11).

  Figure 11: Spectral lines equals

half the block size

For a block size of 2000 data points, there are 1000 spectral lines.

Frequency Resolution
The frequency resolution (Δf) is the spacing between data points in frequency. The frequency
resolution equals the bandwidth divided by the spectral lines as shown in Figure 12.

Figure 12: Frequency resolution equals bandwidth

(Fmax) divided by spectral lines (SL)For example, a bandwidth of 16 Hertz with eight spectral
lines, has a frequency resolution of 2.0 Hertz (Figure 13). 

Figure 13: Frequency resolution equals bandwidth (Fmax) divided by spectral lines (SL)The
eight frequency domain spectral lines are spread evenly between 0 and 16 Hertz, which results in
the 2.0 Hertz spacing on the frequency axis. Note that 0 Hertz is not included in the spectral line
total.  The calculated value at zero Hertz represents a constant amplitude DC offset. For example,
if a 1 Volt sine wave alternated around a 5 Volt offset, the offset value would be placed at zero
Hertz, while the sine wave's 1 Volt amplitude would be placed at the spectral line corresponding
to the sine wave's frequency.

 
Digital Signal Processing Relationships

Putting the above relationships together, the different digital signal processing parameters can be
related to each other (Figure 14).

Figure 14: Digital

signal processing relationships

This can be boiled down to one ‘golden equation’ of digital signal processing (Figure 15) which
related frame size (T) and frequency resolution (Δf):

Figure 15: The ‘golden equation’ of digital signal processingThis

means that:

 The finer the desired frequency resolution, the longer the acquisition time
 The shorter the acquisition time, or frame size, the coarser the frequency resolution

The frequency resolution is important to accurately understand the signal being analyzed.  In
Figure 16, two sine tones (100 Hertz and 101 Hertz) have been digitized, and a Fourier
Transform performed. This was done with two different frequency resolutions: 1.0 Hertz and 0.5
Hertz.
  

Figure 16: Left – Spectrum with 1.0 Hertz frequency resolution makes two separate tones appear
as one peak. Right - Spectrum with 0.5 Hertz frequency resolution makes two separate tones
appear as two different peaks.

With the finer frequency resolution of 0.5 Hertz, rather than 1.0 Hertz, the spectrum shows two
separate and distinct peaks.  The benefit of a finer frequency resolution is very obvious. This
might beg the question, why not use the finest frequency resolution possible in all cases?

There is a tradeoff. Per the ‘golden equation’ the amount of time data per frame is higher as the
frequency resolution is made finer (Figure 13).  This can cause requirements for long time data
acquisition:

 10 Hz frequency resolution is desired, only 0.1 seconds of data is required

 1 Hertz frequency resolution requires 1 second of data
 0.1 Hertz frequency resolution requires 10 seconds of data
 0.01 Hertz frequency resolution requires 100 seconds of data!

In some situations, these long time acquisition requirements are not practical.  For example, a
sports car may go from idle to full speed in just 4 seconds, making a 100 second acquisition, and
the corresponding 0.01 frequency resolution, impossible.

 
 

Simcenter Testlab Settings

In Simcenter Testlab (formerly LMS [Link]), depending on the software module, only some of
these parameters may be settable by the user.  However, the digital signal processing
relationships are still in effect. For example, when setting the bandwidth to 1024 Hz and spectral
lines to 2048 as shown in Figure 17, several other parameters are automatically set.

Figure 17: Simcenter Testlab

acquisition parametersFor these settings, the frame size is 2 seconds (inverse of frequency
resolution).  The sampling frequency is 2048 samples per second, or 2048 Hertz.

Note: Why are the sampling rates and block sizes all powers of two? In the digital world, the
Fast Fourier Transform (FFT) and the Discrete Fourier Transform (DFT) are computer
algorithms used to perform a Fourier Transform.  The Fast Fourier Transform requires a block
size that is a power of two (1024, 2048, 4096, etc.) and is computationally quicker than the DFT,
which can use any number of data points. With today’s modern computers, the differences in
speed are not as noticeable in the past.  But due to historical reasons many data acquisition
systems still use power of two numbers.

Conclusions

Hopefully this article will be a useful reference for performing digital data acquisition.  Some of
the key points discussed:

 
  Sampling frequency (Fs) must be set properly to capture the correct amplitude:
o High as possible to capture peak amplitude in time domain.  Should be set no
lower than 10x the highest frequency of interest.
o At least two times higher than the highest frequency of interest for the frequency
domain.   This would be at least 2.5x higher if accounting for an anti-aliasing
filter.
 There is an inverse relationship (the ‘golden equation’) relating frequency resolution
(Δf) and frame size time (T)

Questions? Email [Link]@[Link] or download the Simcenter SCADAS

Brochure.

Related Links:

 On-Demand Webinar: Digital Signal Processing Fundamentals

 Gain, Range, Quantization
 Aliasing
 Overloads
 Averaging Types: What's the difference?
 Spectrum versus Autopower
 Autopower Function...Demystified!
 Power Spectral Density
 Windows and Leakage
 Window Types
 Window correction factors
 RMS Calculations
 The Gibbs Phenomenon
 Introduction to Filters: FIR and IIR
 Single Ended versus Differential Inputs
 AC versus DC Coupling

[Link]
Labels:

 Digital Signal Processing

 Simcenter SCADAS
 Simcenter Testlab

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Comments
Jombo
Dreamer
09-07-2017 10:37 AM

This article contains all the information I need to know about frequency resolution and its
association in signal processing.

BurchSung
Dreamer
05-23-2018 01:47 PM

Hello....It never ceases to amaze me how little the digital sampling process is understood by
practioners.I have had a number of circumstances lately. The software included with many
current VFDs is incredibly sophisticated; including FFT capabilities, etc. for paramaters
measured by the drives, current variation, [Link] difficulty comes when those attempting to
apply this technology don't know what Hamming vs Hanning ,etc. 

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