Section E.3. ABSOLUTE POWER USING DECIBELS

E 3 ABSOLUTE POWER USING DECIBELS

Let's discuss another use of decibels that the reader may encounter in the literature. It's convenient for practitioners in the electronic communications field to measure continuous signal-power levels referenced to a specific absolute power level. In this way, they can speak of absolute power levels in watts while taking advantage of the convenience of decibels. The most common absolute power reference level used is the milliwatt. For example, if P2 in Eq. (E-2) is a reference power level of one milliwatt, then

The dBm unit of measure in Eq. (E-10) is read as "dB relative to a milliwatt." Thus, if a continuous signal is specified as having a power of 3 dBm, we know that the signal's absolute power level is 2 times one milliwatt, or 2 milliwatts. Likewise, a –10 dBm signal has an absolute power of 0.1 milliwatts.[]

[] Other absolute reference power levels can be used. People involved with high-power transmitters sometimes use a single watt as their reference power level. Their unit of power using decibels is the dBW, read as "dB relative to a watt." In this case, for example, 3 dBW is equal to a 2 watt power level.

The reader should take care not to inadvertently use dB and dBm interchangeably. They mean very different things. Again, dB is a relative power level relationship, and dBm is an absolute power level in milliwatts.

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Chapter One. Discrete Sequences and Systems

Chapter Two. Periodic Sampling

Chapter Three. The Discrete Fourier Transform

Chapter Four. The Fast Fourier Transform

Chapter Five. Finite Impulse Response Filters

Chapter Six. Infinite Impulse Response Filters

Chapter Seven. Specialized Lowpass FIR Filters

Chapter Eight. Quadrature Signals

Chapter Nine. The Discrete Hilbert Transform

Chapter Ten. Sample Rate Conversion

Chapter Eleven. Signal Averaging

Chapter Twelve. Digital Data Formats and Their Effects

Chapter Thirteen. Digital Signal Processing Tricks

Appendix A. The Arithmetic of Complex Numbers

Appendix B. Closed Form of a Geometric Series

Appendix C. Time Reversal and the DFT

Appendix D. Mean, Variance, and Standard Deviation

Appendix E. Decibels (dB and dBm)

Appendix F. Digital Filter Terminology

Appendix G. Frequency Sampling Filter Derivations

Appendix H. Frequency Sampling Filter Design Tables



Understanding Digital Signal Processing
Understanding Digital Signal Processing (2nd Edition)
ISBN: 0131089897
EAN: 2147483647
Year: 2004
Pages: 183

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