2012 Second International Conference on Advanced Computing & Communication Technologies
A Comparative study of Error Detection And
Correction Coding Techniques
Jatinder Singh
University Institute of Engineering and Technology.
Panjab University,
Chandigarh, INDIA
singh01_jatinder@yahoo.com
Abstract— The various codes are used for the error detection and
correction in the field of communication. Some are for the single
bit error and some are for the multiple bits error. Reed-Muller
algorithm realizes the ability of multiple bits error detection and
correction. With the superior error correction capability, these
codes have initiated wide scale interests in satellite
communication, wireless communication, and storage fields.
Reed-Muller codes cover a wide range of service requirements
and diverse interference conditions in wireless applications and
can operate at both high and low code rates. In this paper, the
comparison of Reed-Muller codes with different other codes for
error detection and correction of multiple bits is proposed and
further we can implement it on a Xilinx field programmable gate
array (FPGA) device. Using Reed-Muller method the data is
transferred from transmitter to receiver without any error. The
error detection and correction principle and realization methods
are described in detail. The multiple bits error detection and
correction with Reed-Muller algorithm method can improve the
bit error rate and packet error rate effectively.
Keywords— FORWARD ERROR CORRECTION, AUTOMATIC
REPEAT REQUEST, REED-MULLER CODE,
SINGLE BIT AND MULTIPLE BITS ERROR.
I. INTRODUCTION
The basic idea for achieving error detection is to add
some redundancy to a message which receivers can use to
check consistency of the delivered message and to recover
data determined to be erroneous. Error-detection schemes can
be either systematic or non-systematic: In a systematic scheme
the transmitter sends the original data and attaches a fixed
number of check bits. That is derived from the data bits by
some deterministic algorithm. If only error detection is
required a receiver can simply apply the same algorithm to the
received data bits and compare its output with the received
check bits if the values do not match an error has occurred at
some point during the transmission. In a system that uses a
non-systematic code the original message is transformed into
an encoded message that has at least as many bits as the
original message [1].
Good error control performance requires the scheme to be
selected based on the characteristics of the communication
channel Common channel models include memory-less
models where errors occur randomly and with a certain
probability and dynamic models where errors occur primarily
in bursts [1].
978-0-7695-4640-7/12 $26.00 © 2012 IEEE
DOI 10.1109/ACCT.2012.2
Jaget Singh
University Institute of Engineering and Technology.
Panjab University,
Chandigarh, INDIA
Jaget_singh80@yahoo.co.in
Therefore error-detecting and correcting codes can be
generally distinguished between random-error-
detecting/correcting and burst-error-detecting/correcting.
Some codes can also be suitable for a mixture of random
errors and burst errors. If the channel capacity cannot be
determined or is highly varying an error-detection scheme
may be combined with a system for retransmissions of
erroneous data. This is known as automatic repeat request
(ARQ) and is most notably used in the Internet. An alternate
approach for error control is hybrid automatic repeat
request (HARQ) which is a combination of ARQ and error-
correction coding [1] [2].
Error detection is the detection of errors caused by Noise or
other impairments during transmission from the transmitter to
the receiver. Error correction is the detection of errors and
reconstruction of the original error free data or signal [1] [2].
II. RELATED WORK
This section introduces the different error detection and
correction codes.
A. Error detection schemes:
Error detection is most commonly realized using
suitable hash function . A hash function adds a fixed-
length tag to a message which enables receivers to verify
the delivered message by re-computing the tag and
comparing it with the one provided [1] [3].
1. Repetition codes: A repetition code is a coding
scheme that repeats the bits across a channel to
achieve error-free communication. Given a stream of
data to be transmitted the data is divided into blocks
of bits. Each block is transmitted some
predetermined number of times. These codes are not
very efficient [3] [4].
2. Parity-bit codes: It is a very simple scheme that can
be used to detect single or any other odd number (i.e.,
three, five, etc.) of errors in the output. An even
number of flipped bits will make the parity bit appear
correct [3] [4].
3. Checksums codes: A checksum of a message is
a modular arithmetic sum of message code words of
a fixed word length. The sum may be negated by
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 means of a one's-complement prior to transmission to
detect errors resulting in all-zero messages [3] [5].
4. Cyclic redundancy check codes: CRC is a single-
burst-error-detecting cyclic code and non-secure hash
function designed to detect accidental changes to
digital data in computer networks. which is used as
the divisor in a polynomial long division over a finite
field taking the input data as the dividend and where
the remainder becomes the result [3] [6] [7].
5. Cryptographic hash functions codes: These codes
provided that changes of the data are only accidental
(i.e. due to transmission errors). Any modification to
the data will likely be detected through a
mismatching hash value. Furthermore, given some
hash value it is infeasible to find some input data that
will yield the same hash value. [1] [3].
B. Error correction schemes:
Any error-correcting code can be used for error detection. A
code with minimum hamming distance‘d’ can detect up to (d-
1) errors in a code word. Using minimum-distance-based
error-correcting codes for error detection can be suitable if a
strict limit on the minimum number of errors to be detected is
desired [1] [3].
1. Automatic repeat request codes: ARQ code is
An error control method for data transmission that
makes use of error-detection codes acknowledgment
and/or negative acknowledgment messages and
timeouts to achieve reliable data transmission. An
acknowledgment is a message sent by the receiver to
indicate that it has correctly received a data frame.
Usually when the transmitter does not receive the
acknowledgment before the timeout occurs it
retransmits the frame until it is either correctly
received or the error persists beyond a predetermined
number of retransmissions [1].
2. Forward Error correction codes: An ECC or
forward error correction (FEC) code is a system of
adding redundant data or parity data to a message
such that it can be recovered by a receiver even
when a number of errors were introduced either
during the process of transmission or on storage.
The receiver does not have to ask the sender for
retransmission of the data [1] [3].
3. Hybrid-scheme codes:
It is a combination of ARQ and forward error
correction. There are two basic approaches Messages
are always transmitted with FEC parity data. A
receiver decodes a message using the parity
information and requests retransmission using ARQ
only if the parity data was not sufficient for
successful decoding. Messages are transmitted
without parity data if a receiver detects an error it
requests FEC information from the transmitter using
ARQ and uses it to reconstruct the original message
[1] [2].
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III. COMPARATIVE STUDY
This section summarizes the main differences among the
different coding techniques.
1. Repetition codes:
Repetition codes are very inefficient, and can be
susceptible to problems if the error occurs in exactly
the same place for each group. The advantage of
repetition codes is that they are extremely simple, and
are in fact used in some transmissions of numbers
stations. [3] [4].
2. Parity-bit codes:
If one bit is flipped, a parity-check bit would be able
to tell. However, it would not be able to determine
what bit was flipped or if two bits were flipped.
Therefore a single parity-check bit could only
inadequately check the accuracy of a message and
would be unable to fix it. [3] [4].
3. Checksums codes:
sChecksum schemes include check digits, and
longitudinal redundancy checks. Some checksum
schemes, such as the Luhn algorithm and the Verhoeff
algorithm, are specifically designed to detect errors
commonly introduced by humans in writing down or
remembering identification numbers. [3] [5].
4. Cyclic redundancy check codes:
Cyclic codes have favorable properties in that they
are well suited for detecting burst errors. CRCs are
particularly easy to implement in hardware, and are
therefore commonly used in digital networks and
storage devices such as hard disk drives. [3] [6] [7].
5. Cryptographic hash functions codes:
Message authentication codes also
called keyed cryptographic hash functions provide
additional protection against intentional modification
by an attacker. [1] [3].
6. Automatic repeat request codes:
ARQ is appropriate if the communication channel
has varying or unknown capacity, such as is the case
on the Internet. However, ARQ requires the
availability of a back channel, results in possibly
increased latency due to retransmissions, and requires
the maintenance of buffers and timers for
retransmissions, which in the case of network
congestion can put a strain on the server and overall
network capacity.[1] [2].
7. Forward Error correction codes:
A back-channel is not required in forward error
correction and it is therefore suitable for low latency
and simplex communication such as broadcasting.
Error correcting codes are frequently used in lower
layer communication as well as for reliable storage in
media such as CDs DVDs hard disks and RAM [1] [3].
IV. REED-MULLER ALGORITHM
Reed-Muller codes are some of the oldest error correcting
codes. Error correcting codes are very useful in sending
 information over long distances or through channels where
errors might occur in the message. They have become more
prevalent as telecommunications have expanded and
developed a use for codes that can self-correct. Reed-muller
codes were invented in 1954 by D.E. Muller and I.S. Reed.
In 1972 a reed-muller code was used by Mariner 9 to
transmit black and white photographs of Mars. Reed-muller
codes are relatively easy to decode. [8]
The single error correction (SEC) and double error detection
(DED) may not provide adequate protection in some high-
reliability areas such as Aerospace, Avionics, Military, Data
storage, Telecommunications. This makes multiple-error
correction (MEC) highly desirable in the above said fields and
especially in longer distance communications. So Reed-
Muller algorithm is the best option for these fields [3].
A. CONCEPT OF REED-MULLER ENCODING:
Reed–Muller codes are listed as RM (d, r), where d is the
order of the code, and r is parameter related to the length of
code, n = 2 r. RM codes are related to binary functions on
field GF (2 r) over the elements [0, 1].
r design and to error detection. IEEE Transactions on Computers, 3:6–12,
RM (0, r) codes are repetition codes of length n = 2 , rate
and minimum distance dmin = n.
RM (1, r) codes are parity check codes of length n = 2 r, rate
proposed by Irving. S. Reed and is more general when applied
to other finite geometry codes [8] [9].
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
The authors would like to thank the anonymous reviewers
for their insightful comments.
REFERENCES
[1] Paramdeep Singh and Amandeep Kaur “ Error detection of 16
Multiple Bits using Reed Muller Algorithm” International conference
on wireless Network and embedded system, 2011.
[2] Shu Lin, Daniel J. Costello, Jr. (1983). Error Control Coding:
Fundamentals and Applications. Prentice Hall.
[3] Mann, Henry B., Error Correcting Codes, John Wiley and Sons, 1968.
[4] Reed, Irving S., A Class of Multiple-Error-Correcting Codes and
Decoding Scheme, MIT Lincoln Laboratory, 1953.
[5] Roman, Steven, Coding and Information Theory, Springer-Verlag,
1992.
[6] Yanbin Zhang, Qi Yuan, “A Multiple Bits Error Correction Method
Based on Cyclic Redundancy Check Codes”, Signal Processing- 9th
International Conference, 2008.
[7] Othman 0. Khalifa, MD Rafiqul Islam and S. Khan, “Cyclic
Redundancy Encoder for Error Detection in Communication Channels”,
RF and Microwave conference, 2004.
[8] D. E. Muller. Application of boolean algebra to switching circuit
1954.
[9] Chen Jm Wang sJiong, “Research and Implementation Of an
Improved Reed Decoding Algorithm”, ICSP’O2 Proceedings.
[10] Fu Zuyun. Information Theory: the Basic Principle And Applications.
[11] Beijing: Publishing House of Electronics Industry, 2001. 103- 108.

and minimum distance .

RM(r − 1, r) codes are parity check codes of length n = 2 r.

RM(r − 2, r) codes are the family of extended Hamming

codes of length n = 2 r with minimum distance dmin = 4 [8].

B. CONCEPT OF REED-MULLER DECODING:

RM(r, m) codes can be decoded using the majority logic

decoding. The basic idea of majority logic decoding is to build
several checksums for each received code word element.
Since each of the different checksums must all have the same
value? We can use a majority logic decoding to decipher the
value of the message word element. Once each order of the
polynomial is decoded the received word is modified
accordingly by removing the corresponding code-words
weighted by the decoded message contributions up to the
present stage. So for an rth order RM code we have to decode
iteratively r+1 times before we arrive at the final received
code-word. Also the values of the message bits are calculated
through this scheme. Finally we can calculate the codeword
by multiplying the message word with the generator matrix.
One clue if the decoding succeeded is to have an all-zero
modified received word at the end of (r + 1) stage decoding
through the majority logic decoding. This technique was

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