Digital Signal

A digital signal is a physical signal that is a representation of a sequence of discrete values (a quantified discrete-time signal), for example of arbitrary bit stream, or of a digitized (sampled and analog-to-digital converted) analog signal. The term digital signal can refer to

1. a continuous-time waveform signal used in any form of digital communication.
2. a pulse train signal that switches between a discrete number of voltage levels or levels of light intensity, also known as a a line coded signal, for example a signal found in digital electronics or in serial communications using digital baseband transmissionin, or a pulse code modulation (PCM) representation of a digitized analog signal.

A signal that is generated by means of a digital modulation method (digital passband transmission), produced by a modem, is in the first case considered as a digital signal, and in the second case as converted to an analog signal

WAVEFORM OF DIGITAL SIGNAL

In computer architecture and other digital systems, a waveform that switches between two voltage levels representing the two states of a Boolean value (0 and 1) is referred to as a digital signal, even though it is an analog voltage waveform, since it is interpreted in terms of only two levels.
The clock signal is a special digital signal that is used to synchronize digital circuits. The image shown can be considered the waveform of a clock signal. Logic changes are triggered either by the rising edge or the falling edge.
The given diagram is an example of the practical pulse and therefore we have introduced two new terms that are:

• Rising edge: the transition from a low voltage (level 1 in the diagram) to a high voltage (level 2).
• Falling edge: the transition from a high voltage to a low one.

Although in a highly simplified and idealised model of a digital circuit we may wish for these transitions to occur instantaneously, no real world circuit is purely resistive and therefore no circuit can instantly change voltage levels. This means that during a short, finite transition time the output may not properly reflect the input, and indeed may not correspond to either a logically high or low voltage.