Error Control System and Error
Detection Codes
Module 2. Error Control System and Error Detection
Codes (03 Hours)
2.1 Introduction of error control system, Automatic Retransmission Query (ARQ)
system, Types of ARQ systems and comparison, Forward error correction (FEC)
system. Comparison between FEC and ARQ - 01 Hrs.
2.2 Error detection codes: Vertical Redundancy Check (VRC) code, Longitudinal
Redundancy Check (LRC) code, Cyclic Redundancy Check (CRC) code and
Checksum code - 02 Hrs.
24 August 2
2025
• Need for error detection:
• In digital communication, error are introduced
during the transmission of data from the
transmitter to receiver due to noise.
• The reliability of data transmission will be severely
affected due to these errors.
• In order to increase the reliability of data
transmission, the designer will have to increase the
signal power Eb or reduce the noise spectral
density No,
• so as to maximize the ratio Eb/No
• Practically there is a limitation on maximum
value of the ratio Eb/No.
• We can not increase the ratio beyond certain
limit.
• Hence for a fixed value of Eb/No, we have to
use some kind of “coding” in order to improve
the quality of the transmitted signal.
Types of error
Content errors:
• It is nothing but errors in contents of a
message. e.g. “0” may be received as “1” or
vice versa.
Burst error:
• It means that two or more bits in the data
unit has changed.
Types of error
Flow integrity errors:
• Means missing a block of data .
• It is possible that the data block may be lost
in the network or it has been delivered to a
wrong destination.
ERROR DETECTION
• Error detection uses the concept of
redundancy,
• Which means adding extra bits for detecting
error at the destination.
• Error detecting code is to include only enough
redundancy to allow the receiver to identify
that an error occurred.
Types of error control
1) ARQ technique: In ARQ (automatic request for
retransmission) system, the receiver can send
the request for re-transmission of a complete
part of massage, if it finds some error in the
received message.
• This needed an additional channel called
feedback channel.
• Normally used in computer communication
networking.
Three types of ARQ
❑ Stop - And -Wait ARQ
❑ Go – Back – N ARQ
❑ Selective Repeat ARQ
Types of error control
2) FEC (Forward Error Correction):
• In this method there is no feedback path and request
for retransmission.
• In digital communication normally we use FEC
methods
• Examples of FEC methods are
1. VRC
2. LRC
3. CRC
4. Checksum
5. LBC….. and many more
Generation and Detection of coded signal for
error correction
• Forward error correction:
• The discrete source generate information in the
form of binary symbols.
• The channel encoder will accept these message
bits and add redundancy (additional bits)
according to the prescribed rule.
• We get the encoded data at the encoder output.
• The bit rate of this encoded data is higher than
that of the source.
discrete channel channel
source encoder decoder
• At the receiver side the channel decoder will
take the help of these redundant bits to
decide whether the transmitted signal was a
“1” or a “0”.
Disadvantages of coding:
1) Increased the transmission bandwidth.
2) Make the system complex
Basic concepts
For reliable communication, errors must be
detected and corrected.
Error detection and correction
are implemented either at the data link
layer or the transport layer of the OSI
model.
OSI (Open system Interconnections) Model
Types of Errors
Single-bit error
Single bit errors are the least likely type of
errors in serial data transmission because
the noise must have a very short duration
which is very rare. However this kind of
errors can happen in parallel transmission.
Example:
If data is sent at 1Mbps then each bit lasts
only 1/1,000,000 sec. or 1 μs.
For a single-bit error to occur, the noise
must have a duration of only 1 μs, which is
very rare.
Burst error
The term burst error means that two or
more bits in the data unit have changed
from 1 to 0 or from 0 to 1.
Burst errors does not necessarily mean that
the errors occur in consecutive bits, the
length of the burst is measured from the
first corrupted bit to the last corrupted bit.
Some bits in between may not have been
corrupted.
Burst error is most likely to happen in serial
transmission since the duration of noise is
normally longer than the duration of a bit.
The number of bits affected depends on the
data rate and duration of noise.
Example:
If data is sent at rate = 1Kbps then a noise of 1/100 sec
can affect 10 bits.(1/100*103)
If same data is sent at rate = 1Mbps then a noise of
1/100 sec can affect 10,000 bits.(1/100*10 6)
Error detection
➢ Error detection means to decide whether the
received data is correct or not without having a
copy of the original message.
➢ Error detection uses the concept of
redundancy, which means adding extra bits for
detecting errors at the destination.
Redundancy
Four types of redundancy checks are used
in data communications
Four types of redundancy checks are used
in data communications
Longitudinal Redundancy Check
LRC
LRC EXAMPLE
Four types of redundancy checks are used
in data communications
At the sender
The unit is divided into k sections, each of n
bits.
All sections are added together to get the sum.
The sum is complemented and becomes the
checksum.
The checksum is sent with the data
Checksum
At the receiver
The unit is divided into k sections, each of n
bits.
All sections are added together to get the sum.
The sum is complemented.
If the result is zero, the data are accepted:
otherwise, they are rejected.
Error Correction
It can be handled in two ways:
1) receiver can have the sender retransmit the
entire data unit.
2) The receiver can use an error-correcting
code, which automatically corrects certain
errors.
Cyclic redundancy check (CRC)
• Unlike checksum scheme, which is based
on addition, CRC is based on binary
division.
• In CRC, a sequence of redundant bits,
called cyclic redundancy check bits, are
appended to the end of data unit so that
the resulting data unit becomes exactly
divisible by a second, predetermined
binary number.
Cyclic redundancy check (CRC)
• At the destination, the incoming data unit is
divided by the same number. If at this step
there is no remainder, the data unit is
assumed to be correct and is therefore
accepted.
• A remainder indicates that the data unit has
been damaged in transit and therefore must
be rejected.
Cyclic Redundancy Check
CRC
• Original message : 1010000
• CRC Generator : 1001
Binary Division
Polynomial
Polynomial and Divisor
Standard Polynomials
Three types of ARQ
❑ Stop - And -Wait ARQ
❑ Go – Back – N ARQ
❑ Selective Repeat ARQ
