CAPTURE EFFECT [5TH UNIT]

Whenever a strong interference signal with closer frequency to the desired signal arrives,
the receiver locks that interference signal. Such a phenomenon is called as the Capture
effect.
A phenomenon, associated with FM reception, in which only the stronger of two signals at
or near the same frequency will be demodulated
• The complete suppression of the weaker signal occurs at the receiver limiter, where it is
treated as noise and rejected.
• When both signals are nearly equal in strength, or are fading independently, the receiver
may switch from one to the other.
In the frequency modulation, the signal can be affected by another frequency modulated
signal whose frequency content is close to the carrier frequency of the desired FM wave.
The receiver may lock such an interference signal and suppress the desired FM wave when
interference signal is stronger than the desired signal. When the strength of the desired
signal and interference signal are nearly equal, the receiver fluctuates back and forth
between them, i.e., receiver locks interference signal for some times and desired signal for
some time and this goes on randomly.

· This phenomenon is known as the capture effect.

A line code is the code used for data transmission of a digital signal over a transmission line.
This process of coding is chosen so as to avoid overlap and distortion of signal such as inter-
symbol interference.

Properties of Line Coding

Following are the properties of line coding −

• As the coding is done to make more bits transmit on a single signal, the bandwidth
used is much reduced.
• For a given bandwidth, the power is efficiently used.
• The probability of error is much reduced.
 • Error detection is done and the bipolar too has a correction capability.
• Power density is much favorable.
• The timing content is adequate.
• Long strings of 1s and 0s is avoided to maintain transparency.
Types of Line Coding

There are 3 types of Line Coding

• Unipolar
• Polar
• Bi-polar

Unipolar Signaling

Unipolar signaling is also called as On-Off Keying or simply OOK.

The presence of pulse represents a 1 and the absence of pulse represents a 0.

There are two variations in Unipolar signaling −

• Non Return to Zero NRZ

In this type of unipolar signaling, a High in data is represented by a positive pulse called
as Mark, which has a duration T0 equal to the symbol bit duration. A Low in data input has
no pulse.

The following figure clearly depicts this.

The advantages of Unipolar NRZ are −

• It is simple.
• A lesser bandwidth is required.

Disadvantages

The disadvantages of Unipolar NRZ are −

• No error correction done.

In this type of unipolar signaling, a High in data, though represented by a Mark pulse, its
duration T0 is less than the symbol bit duration. Half of the bit duration remains high but it
immediately returns to zero and shows the absence of pulse during the remaining half of
the bit duration.

It is clearly understood with the help of the following figure.

Advantages

The advantages of Unipolar RZ are −

• It is simple.
 • The spectral line present at the symbol rate can be used as a clock.

Disadvantages

The disadvantages of Unipolar RZ are −

• No error correction.
• Occupies twice the bandwidth as unipolar NRZ.
• The signal droop is caused at the places where signal is non-zero at 0 Hz.

Polar Signaling

There are two methods of Polar Signaling. They are −

• Polar NRZ
• Polar RZ
Polar NRZ

In this type of Polar signaling, a High in data is represented by a positive pulse, while a Low
in data is represented by a negative pulse. The following figure depicts this well.

Advantages

The advantages of Polar NRZ are −

• It is simple.
• No low-frequency components are present.
Disadvantages

The disadvantages of Polar NRZ are −

• No error correction.
• No clock is present.
• The signal droop is caused at the places where the signal is non-zero at 0 Hz.
Polar RZ

In this type of Polar signaling, a High in data, though represented by a Mark pulse, its
duration T0 is less than the symbol bit duration. Half of the bit duration remains high but it
immediately returns to zero and shows the absence of pulse during the remaining half of
the bit duration.

However, for a Low input, a negative pulse represents the data, and the zero level remains
same for the other half of the bit duration. The following figure depicts this clearly.

Advantages

The advantages of Polar RZ are −

• It is simple.
• No low-frequency components are present.

Disadvantages

The disadvantages of Polar RZ are −

• No error correction.
 • No clock is present.
• Occupies twice the bandwidth of Polar NRZ.
• The signal droop is caused at places where the signal is non-zero at 0 Hz.

Bipolar Signaling

This is an encoding technique which has three voltage levels namely +, - and 0. Such a signal
is called as duo-binary signal.

An example of this type is Alternate Mark Inversion AMI. For a 1, the voltage level gets a
transition from + to – or from – to +, having alternate 1s to be of equal polarity. A 0 will have
a zero voltage level.

Even in this method, we have two types.

• Bipolar NRZ
• Bipolar RZ

From the models so far discussed, we have learnt the difference between NRZ and RZ. It just
goes in the same way here too. The following figure clearly depicts this.
The above figure has both the Bipolar NRZ and RZ waveforms. The pulse duration and
symbol bit duration are equal in NRZ type, while the pulse duration is half of the symbol bit
duration in RZ type.

Advantages

Following are the advantages −

• It is simple.
• No low-frequency components are present.
• Occupies low bandwidth than unipolar and polar NRZ schemes.
• This technique is suitable for transmission over AC coupled lines, as signal drooping
doesn’t occur here.
• A single error detection capability is present in this.
Disadvantages

Following are the disadvantages −

• No clock is present.
• Long strings of data causes loss of synchronization.