How does decimation work without losing samples?

1. How does decimation work?
2. Is decimation same as down sampling?
3. What is the difference between interpolation and decimation?
4. Which is used to eliminate the aliasing effect in the process of decimation?

How does decimation work?

Decimation is a method of observing only a periodic portion of the ADC samples, while ignoring the rest. The result is to reduce the sample rate of the ADC. For example, a decimate-by-4 mode would mean (total samples)/4, while all other samples are effectively discarded.

Is decimation same as down sampling?

Decimation is the process of reducing the sampling frequency of a signal to a lower sampling frequency that differs from the original frequency by an integer value. Decimation also is known as down-sampling.

What is the difference between interpolation and decimation?

Decimation and interpolation are the two basic building blocks in the multirate digital signal processing systems. The decimator is utilized to decrease the sampling rate and interpolator to increase the sampling rate.

Which is used to eliminate the aliasing effect in the process of decimation?

Aliasing is generally avoided by applying low-pass filters or anti-aliasing filters (AAF) to the input signal before sampling and when converting a signal from a higher to a lower sampling rate.