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Response of an LTI System

Understand how to find an LTI system's output for any input by using the system impulse response and the convolution sum. Explore the relationship between input signals decomposed into impulses and how convolution calculates the output, a core concept in digital signal processing.

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In this lesson, we learn how to determine the output response of a system for any arbitrary input.

Finding the output

To find the answer to this question, the following two results are needed:

  1. System impulse response h[n]h[n] is the output when the input is a unit impulse δ[n]\delta [n].
  2. Any signal can be decomposed as a set of scaled and shifted unit impulses as:

x[n]=+x[1]δ[n+1]+x[0]δ[n]+x[1]δ[n1]+=mx[m]δ[nm] \begin{align*} x[n]&= \cdots + x[-1]\delta[n+1] + \nonumber \\ &\quad\quad\quad\quad\quad x[0]\delta[n] + x[1]\delta[n-1] + \cdots \nonumber \\ &= \sum _mx[m] \delta[n-m] \end{align*} ...