Data communication and networking

fourth Edition by
Behrouz A. Forouzan

Chapter 10
Error Detection
and
Correction

10.1
 Note

Data can be corrupted

during transmission.

Some applications require that

errors be detected and corrected.

10.2
 10-1 INTRODUCTION

Let us first discuss some issues related, directly or

indirectly, to error detection and correction.

Topics discussed in this section:

Types of Errors
Redundancy
Detection Versus Correction
Forward Error Correction Versus Retransmission
Coding
ModularArithmetic

10.3
 Note

In a single-bit error, only 1 bit in the data

unit has changed.

10.4
 Figure 10.1 Single-bit error

10.5
 Note

A burst error means that 2 or more bits

in the data unit have changed.

10.6
 Figure 10.2 Burst error of length 8

10.7
 Redundancy : is the central concept in detecting &
correcting errors.
We need to send some extra bits with our data. These
redundant bits are added by the sender and removed by
the receiver .

Note

To detect or correct errors, we need to

send extra (redundant) bits with data.

10.8
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 Figure 10.3 The structure of encoder and decoder

10.9
 Detection Versus Correction

 In error detection , we are looking only to

see if any error has occurred. A single-bit
error is the same for us as a burst error.
 In error correction , we need to know the
exact number of bits that are corrupted and
more importantly, their location in the
message. So the number of errors and the
size of the message are important factors.
 Note: correction of errors is more difficult than
the detection
10.10
 Forward Error Correction Versus
Retransmission
Tow main methods of error correction
I. Forward error correction FEC: is the process in
which the receiver tries to guess the message
by using redundant bits.
II. Retransmission : is a technique in which the
receiver detects the occurrence of an error and
asks the sender to resend the message.

Note: use FEC if the number of errors is small.

10.11
 Coding
Redundancy is achieved through various coding
schemes. The sender adds redundant bits through a
process that creates a relationship between the
redundant bits and the actual data bits.

The receiver checks the relationships between the

two sets of bits to detect or correct the errors.

The ratio of redundant bits to the data bits and the

robustness of the process are important factors in
any coding scheme

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10.12
 coding schemes is divided into two
categories :

1 block coding .

2 convolution coding. convolution coding is more

complex than block coding.

Note
 In this section , we concentrate on block
codes; we leave convolution codes
to advanced texts.
10.13
 Modular Arithmetic
 In modular arithmetic, we use only a limited range of
integers. We define an upper limit, called a modulus N.
We then use only the integers 0 to N - 1.
 For example, if the modulus is 12, we use only the
integers 0 to 11.
 In a modulo-N system, if a number is greater than N, it
is divided by N and the remainder is the result.

Addition and subtraction in modulo arithmetic are simple. There is no

carry when you add two digits in a column. There is no carry when
you subtract one digit from another in a column

10.14
 Modulo-2 Arithmetic
Of particular interest is modulo-2 arithmetic. In this
arithmetic, the modulus N is 2. We can use only 0
and 1. Operations in this arithmetic are very simple.
The following shows how we can add or subtract 2
bits.
Adding: 0+0=0 0+1=1 1+0=1 1+1=0
Subtracting: 0 -0=0 0 -1=1 1-0=1 1 -1=0
use the XOR (exclusive OR) operation for both


addition and subtraction.

Note

In modulo-N arithmetic, we use only the

integers in the range 0 to N −1, inclusive.
10.15
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 Figure 10.4 XORing of two single bits or two words

Note : If the modulus is not 2, addition and

subtraction are distinct.
10.16
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 10-2 BLOCK CODING

In block coding, we divide our message into blocks, each

of k bits, called datawords.
We add r redundant bits to each block to make the length
n = k + r. The resulting n-bit blocks are called codewords.

With k bits, we can create a combination of 2k datawords;

with n bits, we can create a combination of 2n codewords.

The block coding process is one-to-one; the same

dataword is always encoded as the same codeword. This
means that we have 2n - 2k codewords that are not used.

10.17
 Topics discussed in this section:

 Error Detection
 Error Correction
 Hamming Distance
 Minimum Hamming Distance

10.18
 Figure 10.5 Datawords and codewords in block coding

10.19
 Example 10.1

The 4B/5B block coding is a good example of this type of

coding.
In this coding scheme, k = 4 and n = 5. As we saw, we
have 2k = 16 datawords and 2n = 32 codewords.

We saw that 16 out of 32 codewords are used for message

transfer and the rest are either used for other purposes or
unused.

10.20
 Figure 10.6 Process of error detection in block coding

10.21
 Error Detection
How can errors be detected by using block coding?
If the following two conditions are met, the
receiver can detect a change in the original
codeword.

 1. The receiver has (or can find) a list of valid

codewords.
 2. The original codeword has changed to an invalid one.

10.22
 Example 10.2

Let us assume that k = 2 and n = 3. Table 10.1 shows the

list of datawords and codewords. Later, we will see
how to derive a codeword from a dataword.

Assume the sender encodes the dataword 01 as 011 and

sends it to the receiver. Consider the following cases:

1. The receiver receives 011. It is a valid codeword. The

receiver extracts the dataword 01 from it.

10.23
 Example 10.2 (continued)

2. The codeword is corrupted during transmission, and

111 is received. This is not a valid codeword and is
discarded (don’t exist in table).

3. The codeword is corrupted during transmission, and

000 is received. This is a valid codeword.
The receiver incorrectly extracts the dataword 00. Two
corrupted bits have made the error undetectable.

10.24
 Table 10.1 A code for error detection (Example 10.2)

10.25
 Note

An error-detecting code can detect

only the types of errors for which it is;
designed,other types of errors may
remain undetected.

10.26
 Figure 10.7 Structure of encoder and decoder in error correction

10.27
 Error Correction
As we said before, error correction is much
more difficult than error detection. In error
detection, the receiver needs to know only that
the received codeword is invalid; in error
correction the receiver needs to find (or –
guess) the original codeword sent.

Figure 10.7 shows the role of block coding in

error correction. We can see that the idea is
the same as error detection but the checker
functions are much more complex.
10.28
 Example 10.3

Let us add more redundant bits to Example 10.2 to see if the

receiver can correct an error without knowing what was actually
sent. We add 3 redundant bits to the 2-bit dataword to make 5-bit
codewords. Table 10.2 shows the datawords and codewords.

Assume the dataword is 01. The sender creates the codeword

01011.
The codeword is corrupted during transmission, and 01001 is
received. First, the receiver finds that the received codeword is not
in the table. This means an error has occurred. The receiver,
assuming that there is only 1 bit corrupted, uses the following
strategy to guess the correct dataword.

10.29
 Example 10.3 (continued)
1. Comparing the received codeword with the first
codeword in the table (01001 versus 00000), the
receiver decides that the first codeword is not the one
that was sent because there are two different bits.

2. By the same reasoning, the original codeword cannot

be the third or fourth one in the table.

3. The original codeword must be the second one in the

table because this is the only one that differs from the
received codeword by 1 bit. The receiver replaces
01001 with 01011 and consults the table to find the
dataword 01.
10.30
 Table 10.2 A code for error correction (Example 10.3)

10.31
 Hamming Distance
One of the central concepts in coding for error
control is the idea of the Hamming distance.

The Hamming distance can easily be found if we apply the

XOR operation (Θ) on the two words and count the number
of 1’s in the result. Note that the Hamming distance is
a value greater than zero.

Note
The Hamming distance between two
words is the number of differences
between corresponding bits.
10.32
 Example 10.4

Let us find the Hamming distance between two pairs of

words.

1. The Hamming distance d(000, 011) is 2 because

2. The Hamming distance d(10101, 11110) is 3 because

10.33
 Minimum Hamming Distance
the measurement that is used for designing a code is the
minimum Hamming distance.
We use dmin to define the minimum Hamming distance in a
coding scheme.

To find this value, we find the Hamming

distances between all words and select the smallest one.

Note

The minimum Hamming distance is the

smallest Hamming distance between
all possible pairs in a set of words.
10.34
 Example 10.5

Find the minimum Hamming distance of the coding

scheme in Table 10.1.
Solution
We first find all Hamming distances.

The dmin in this case is 2.

10.35
 Example 10.6

Find the minimum Hamming distance of the coding

scheme in Table 10.2.

Solution
We first find all the Hamming distances.

The dmin in this case is 3.

10.36
  Three Parameters
Before we continue with our discussion, we need to
mention that any coding scheme needs to have at least
three parameters: the codeword size n, the dataword
size k, and the minimum Hamming distance dmin.

A coding scheme C is written as C(n, k) with a separate

expression for dmin.
For example, we can call our first coding scheme C(3, 2)
with dmin =2 and our second coding scheme C(5, 2) with
dmin = 3.

10.37
 Hamming Distance and Error
let us discuss the relationship between the Hamming distance
and errors occurring during transmission.

When a codeword is corrupted during transmission, the Hamming

distance between the sent and received codewords is the
number of bits affected by the error.
In other words, the Hamming distance between the received
codeword and the sent codeword is the number of bits that
are corrupted during transmission.

For example, if the codeword 00000 is sent and 01101 is

received, 3 bits are in error and the Hamming distance
between the two is d(00000, 01101) =3.

10.38
 Note

To guarantee the detection of up to s

errors in all cases, the minimum
Hamming distance in a blockcode
must be dmin = s + 1.

10.39
 Example 10.7

The minimum Hamming distance for our first code

scheme (Table 10.1) is 2. This code guarantees detection
of only a single error.

For example, if the third codeword (101) is sent and one

error occurs, the received codeword does not match any
valid codeword. If two errors occur, however, the
received codeword may match a valid codeword and
the errors are not detected.

10.40
 Example 10.8

Our second block code scheme (Table 10.2) has dmin = 3.

This code can detect up to two errors. Again, we see that
when any of the valid codewords is sent, two errors create
a codeword which is not in the table of valid codewords.
The receiver cannot be fooled.

However, some combinations of three errors change a

valid codeword to another valid codeword. The receiver
accepts the received codeword and the errors are
undetected.

10.41
 10-3 LINEAR BLOCK CODES

Almost all block codes used today belong to a subset

called linear block codes. A linear block code is a code
in which the exclusive OR (addition modulo-2) of two
valid codewords creates another valid codeword.

Topics discussed in this section:

Minimum Distance for Linear Block Codes
Some Linear Block Codes

10.42
 Note

In a linear block code, the exclusive OR

(XOR) of any two valid code words
creates another valid codeword.

10.43
 Example 10.10

Let us see if the two codes we defined in Table 10.1 and

Table 10.2 belong to the class of linear block codes.

1. The scheme in Table 10.1 is a linear block code

because the result of XORing any codeword with any
other codeword is a valid codeword. For example, the
XORing of the second and third codewords creates
the fourth one.

2. The scheme in Table 10.2 is also a linear block code.

We can create all four codewords by XORing two other
codewords.
10.44
 Minimum Distance for Linear Block Codes

It is simple to find the minimum Hamming distance for a linear

block code. The minimum Hamming distance is the number of
1s in the nonzero valid codeword with the smallest number of
1s.

Example 10.11
In our first code (Table 10.1), the numbers of 1s in the
nonzero codewords are 2, 2, and 2. So the minimum
Hamming distance is dmin = 2. In our second code (Table
10.2), the numbers of 1s in the nonzero codewords are 3,
3, and 4. So in this code we have dmin = 3.

10.45
 Types of linear Block Codes
1-Simple Parity-Check Code: the most familiar error-
detecting code is the simple parity-check code. In this
code, a k-bit dataword is changed to an n-bit codeword
where n = k + 1. The extra bit, called the parity bit, is
selected to make the total number of 1s in the codeword
even.

A simple parity-check code is a

single-bit error-detecting
code in which
n = k + 1 with dmin = 2.

10.46
 Table 10.3 Simple parity-check code C(5, 4)

10.47
 Figure 10.10 Encoder and decoder for simple parity-check code

10.48
 Example 10.12

Let us look at some transmission scenarios. Assume the

sender sends the dataword 1011. The codeword created
from this dataword is 10111, which is sent to the receiver.
We examine five cases:

1. No error occurs; the received codeword is 10111. The

syndrome is 0. The dataword 1011 is created.
2. One single-bit error changes a1 . The received
codeword is 10011. The syndrome is 1. No dataword
is created.
3. One single-bit error changes r0 . The received codeword
is 10110. The syndrome is 1. No dataword is created.
10.49
 Example 10.12 (continued)

4. An error changes r0 and a second error changes a3 .

The received codeword is 00110. The syndrome is 0.
The dataword 0011 is created at the receiver. Note that
here the dataword is wrongly created due to the
syndrome value.
5. Three bits— a3, a2, and a1—are changed by errors.
The received codeword is (01011). The syndrome is 1.
The dataword is not created.
Note :This shows that the simple parity check, guaranteed
to detect one single error ,can also find any odd number of
errors.

10.50
 Note

A simple parity-check code can detect

an odd number of errors.

10.51