Chapter 10

Error Detection
and
Correction

10.1 Copyright © The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. Permission required for reproduction or display.
 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
Modular Arithmetic

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
 Note

To detect or correct errors, we need to

send extra (redundant) bits with data.

10.8
 Figure 10.3 The structure of encoder and decoder

10.9
 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.

Topics discussed in this section:

Error Detection
Error Correction
Hamming Distance
Minimum Hamming Distance

10.10
 Figure 10.5 Datawords and codewords in block coding

10.11
 Error detection in block coding

10.12
 Example 10.2

Let us assume that k = 2 and n = 3. Table below shows the list of

datawords and codewords.

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.
10.13
 Example 10.2 (continued)

Dataword – 01
Codeword - 011

2. The codeword is corrupted during transmission, and

111 is received. This is not a valid codeword and is
discarded.

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.
10.14
 Note

An error-detecting code can detect

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

10.15
 Error correction

10.16
 Error correction
• More redundant bits added to correct an error without knowing
what was actually sent.
• 3 redundant bits are added to the 2-bit dataword to make 5-bit
codewords. Table below 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.
• Receiver detects an error and assumes only 1 bit corrupted.

10.17
 Example 10.3 (continued)
1. Comparing the received codeword (01001) with the first codeword
(00000) in the table, 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.
10.18
 Note

The Hamming distance between two

words is the number of differences
between corresponding bits.

10.19
 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

10.20
 Note

The minimum Hamming distance is the

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

10.21
 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.

10.22
 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.

10.23
 Note

To guarantee the detection of up to s

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

10.24
 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

10.25
 Note

In a linear block code, the exclusive OR

(XOR) of any two valid codewords
creates another valid codeword.

10.26
 Example 10.10

The scheme in the following table 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.

10.27
 Simple parity check code
• Dataword – k bits
• Codeword – n bits (n = k + 1), extra bit called the parity bit.
• Parity bit used to make the total number of 1’s in the
codeword even.
• Min. Hamming dist. (dmin) = 2, useful for detecting single bit
error.

10.28
 Encoder and decoder for simple parity-check code

10.29
 Working principle of simple parity-check code
• Calculation done in modular arithmetic.

Sender side
• Generator takes a copy of 4-bit dataword and generates parity bit (r 0)
r0 = a3 + a2 + a1 + a0 (modulo 2)
• Codeword (5 bits) – dataword (4 bits) + parity bit (1 bit)
• Parity bit makes the total number of 1’s is the codeword even.

10.30
 Working principle of simple parity-check code
Receiver side
•Checker performs the same operation on 5-bit codeword to
generate the syndrome (s0)
s0 = b3 + b2 + b1 + b0 + q0 (modulo 2)

•If s0 is 0, there is no error, if 1 there is an error.

10.31
 Example

Sender
Dataword – 1011 -------> Codeword - 10111

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.

10.32
 Example 10.12 (continued)

Dataword – 1011 -------> Codeword - 10111

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. This shows that the simple
parity check, guaranteed to detect one single error, can
also find any odd number of errors.

10.33
 Note

A simple parity-check code can detect

an odd number of errors.

10.34
 10-4 CYCLIC CODES

Cyclic codes are special linear block codes with one

extra property. In a cyclic code, if a codeword is
cyclically shifted (rotated), the result is another
codeword.

1 0 1 1 0 0 0

Cyclic shift

0 1 1 0 0 0 1

10.35
 Table 10.6 A CRC code with C(7, 4)

10.36
 Cyclic Redundancy Check (CRC) encoder and decoder

• CRC used for error detection

10.37
 Cyclic Redundancy Check (CRC)
Sender side
•Dataword – k bits Codeword – n bits
•To generate codeword
• (n – k) 0s are appended to the dataword.
• It is fed to a generator, which uses a divisor of size (n – k + 1),
which is agreed upon.
• Generator divides the augmented dataword (modulo 2 division) –
quotient discarded, remainder appended to the dataword

10.38
 Cyclic Redundancy Check (CRC)
Receiver side
•Received codeword fed to the checker, which performs modulo 2
division on n bits.
•Output is called syndrome of (n – k) bits, this is fed to the decision
logic analyzer.
• If all bits are 0s, the first k bits are accepted as dataword.
• Otherwise, the k bits are discarded.

10.39
 Sender side: Division in CRC encoder

10.40
 Receiver side: Division in the CRC decoder for two cases

10.41