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MODULATION AND
CODING TECHNIQUES
A Modular Approach
 MODULE 9

Error Detection and Error Correction

OBJECTIVES:

 Identify the different types of codes.

 Internalize on the different types of error detection and error correction schemes
 Analyze and solve problems involving error detection and error correction.

DATA COMMUNICATION CODES

 These are used to represent characters and symbols such as letters, digits, and
punctuation marks.

Baudot Code

 It is also called Telex Code

 It was the first fixed length character developed for machines rather than people.
 It was developed by Thomas Murray in 1875 after the name of Emile Baudot (a
pioneer in telegraphy)
 It is a fixed length source code wherein characters are represented in binary and have
the same number of symbols.
 It was a 5-bit character code that was used primarily for low speed teletype
equipment.

ASCII Code

 It completely stands for United States of America Standard Code for Information
Exchange.
 It is also known as ASCII-63.
 It is the standard character set for source coding the alphanumeric character set that
humans understand but computer does not.
 It is a 7-bit fixed length character set.

EBCDIC Code

 EBCDIC stands for Extended Binary Coded Decimal Interchange Code.

 It is an 8-bit fixed length character set developed by IBM in 1962.
 The name binary coded decimal was selected because the second hex character
for all letter and digit codes contains only the hex values 0 to 9.

BAR CODES

 These are those omnipresent black and white striped stickers that seem to appear
in every consumer item in the world.
 It is a series of vertical black bars separated by vertical white bars called spaces.
 The widths of the bars and spaces along with their reflective abilities represent
binary 1’s and 0’s, and the combination of bits represents certain items.

Classes of Bar Codes

1. Discrete Code
 A discrete bar code has spaces or gaps between characters.
 Each character within the bar code is independent of every other character.

Disclaimer: The professor does not own some contents and all pictures of this module. Full credits are given to all sources especially
to the book “Advanced Electronic Communication Systems” by Wayne Tomasi
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 2. Continuous Code
 It does not include spaces between characters
3. 2D Code
 It stores data in 2 dimensions in contrast with a conventional linear bar code
which stores data along only on one axis.
 It has larger storage capacity than one-dimensional bar codes.

Kinds of Bar Codes

CODE-39

 It is one of the most popular bar codes developed in 1974.

 It is also called 3 of 9 or 9 of 3 code.
 It uses an alphanumeric code similar to the ASCII code.
 It consists of 36 unique codes representing the 10 digits and 26 uppercase letters.
 Each Code-39 character contains 9 vertical elements.

UNIVERSAL PRODUCT CODE

 It was developed by the grocery industry specifically the National Association of Food
Chains in 1974.
 It was a continuous code since there are no intercharacter spaces.
 The width of the bars and spaces do not correspond to logic 1’s or logic 0’s. Instead,
the digits 0 to 9 are encoded into a combination of two-variable width bars and two
variable width spaces that occupy the equivalent of 7-bit positions.

ERROR DETECTION

 It is the process of monitoring data transmission and determining when errors have
occurred.
 Error detection techniques neither correct errors nor identify which bits are in error-
they indicate only when an error has occurred.
 The purpose of error detection is not to prevent errors from occurring but to prevent
undetected errors from occurring.

Disclaimer: The professor does not own some contents and all pictures of this module. Full credits are given to all sources especially
to the book “Advanced Electronic Communication Systems” by Wayne Tomasi
2
REDUNDANCY

 It involves the transmitting of each character twice. If the same character is not
received twice in succession, a transmission error has occurred.
 It is an effective method of error detection but rather a costly method especially for
long messages.

Types of Redundancy

a. Vertical Redundancy Checking (VRC)

 It is the simplest error detection scheme.
 It is also called character parity or parity.
 With character parity, each character has its own error detection bit called
the parity bit.
 Since the parity bit is not actually part of the character, it is called as the
redundant bit.
 With character parity, a single parity bit is added to each character to force
the total of logic 1’s in the character, including the parity bit, to be either an
odd number (odd parity) or even number (even parity)

Advantage: simplicity

Disadvantage:

 When even numbers of bits are received in error, the parity

checker will not detect them because when the logic
condition of the even number of bits is changed, the parity
of the character remains the same.
b. Checksum
 It is another simple form of redundancy checking where each character has
a numerical value assigned to it.
 The characters within a message are combined together to produce an error
checking character (checksum).
 The checksum is appended at the end of the message.
 The receiver replicates the combining operation and determines its own
checksum.
 The receiver’s checksum is then compared to the checksum appended to
the message. If they are the same, it is assumed that there is no
transmission error.

c. Longitudinal Redundancy Checking (LRC)

 It is a redundancy detection scheme that uses parity to determine if a
transmission error has occurred within a message and is sometimes
called message parity.
 With LRC, each bit position has a parity bit.
 With LRC, even parity is generally used, whereas with VRC, odd
parity is generally used.
 LRC bits are computed within the transmitter while the data are being
sent and then appended to the end of the message as a redundant
character.
 In the receiver, the LRC is recomputed from the data, and the
recomputed LRC is compared to the LRC appended to the end of the
transmitted message.

Disclaimer: The professor does not own some contents and all pictures of this module. Full credits are given to all sources especially
to the book “Advanced Electronic Communication Systems” by Wayne Tomasi
3
  If 2 LRC characters are the same, most likely no transmission error
has occurred.
 The group of characters that comprise a message is called a block or
frame of data.
 The bit sequence for the LRC is called as block check sequence or
frame check sequence.

d. Cyclic Redundancy Checking (CRC)

 It validates transmission of a set of data, formatted in a block or frame
through the use of a unique mathematical polynomial known to transmitter
and receiver.
 It is considered as the most reliable redundancy checking technique.

Sample Problem

Disclaimer: The professor does not own some contents and all pictures of this module. Full credits are given to all sources especially
to the book “Advanced Electronic Communication Systems” by Wayne Tomasi
4
ECHOPLEX

 It involves the receiving device echoing the received data back to the transmitting
device

EXACT COUNT ENCODING

 The number of 1’s in each character is the same and therefore a simple count of the
number of 1’s received in each character can determine if a transmission error has
occurred.

ERROR CORRECTION

 It is the process that include sufficient extraneous information along with each
message to enable the receiver to determine when an error has occurred and which
bit is in error.

Kinds of Error Correction

SYMBOL SUBSTITUTION

 In symbol substitution, if a character is received in error, rather than revert to a high

level of error correction or display the incorrect character.

RETRANSMISSION

 It involves the resending of message when it is received in error and the receive
terminal automatically calls for retransmission of the entire message.
 In this method, receive station requests the transmit station to resend a message
when the received message has errors.
 It is often called as ARQ (Automatic Repeat Request).
 Acknowledgments are used when the recepient of data sends a short message back
to the sender acknowledging receipt of the last transmission.

FORWARD ERROR CORRECTION (FEC)

 It involves the addition of redundant information embedded in the data set in order
that the receiving device can detect errors and correct for them without requiring a
retransmission.
 It is the only error correction scheme that actually detects and corrects
transmission errors when they are received without requiring for retransmission.
 With FEC redundant bits are added to the message before transmission.
 When an error is detected, the redundant bits are used to determine which bit is in
error.

Key Terms:

Hamming Code
 It is an error correcting code used for correcting transmission errors in
synchronous data streams
 It can only correct single bit error and cannot correct burst error.
 This is named after Richard Hamming.

Hamming Bits

 These are called as error bits inserted in the character during

transmission.

Disclaimer: The professor does not own some contents and all pictures of this module. Full credits are given to all sources especially
to the book “Advanced Electronic Communication Systems” by Wayne Tomasi
5
  The combination of data bits and hamming bits is called as hamming
code

Other Parameters

Required hamming distance for error detection:

Hamming distance = d+1

Required hamming distance for error correction:

Hamming distance = 2d+1

Sample Problem

Disclaimer: The professor does not own some contents and all pictures of this module. Full credits are given to all sources especially
to the book “Advanced Electronic Communication Systems” by Wayne Tomasi
6
 EXERCISE NO. 9

Error Detection and Error Correction

Name: ___________ Date: _______
Course & Year: ___________ Professor: ____

Answer the following questions.

Required Readings

 Read PDF pages 154-173 (Tomasi’s Book)

Disclaimer: The professor does not own some contents and all pictures of this module. Full credits are given to all sources especially
to the book “Advanced Electronic Communication Systems” by Wayne Tomasi
7
Disclaimer: The professor does not own some contents and all pictures of this module. Full credits are given to all sources especially
to the book “Advanced Electronic Communication Systems” by Wayne Tomasi
8