Int ern a tio na l Jo u rna l of Appli ed R esea rch 201 6; 2(8): 216 -2 1 8

ISSN Print: 2394-7500

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An introduction to various error detection and
IJAR 2016; 2(8): 216-218
www.allresearchjournal.com
correction schemes used in communication
Received: 01-06-2016
Accepted: 02-07-2016
Simmi Garg, Anuj Kumar Sharma and AK Tyagi
Simmi Garg
Department of Physics, Abstract
Dev Samaj College for Women, Wireless communication systems are more prone to errors during transmission of messages. But
Ferozepur, Punjab, India reliable and efficient data transmission is a main topic of interest. Since long time, researchers are
working for various error detection and correction (EDAC) technique for error free data transmission.
Anuj Kumar Sharma This paper is an attempt to provide basic information about various error detection and correction
Department of Mathematics,
schemes developed. There are mainly two types of EDAC techniques namely Automatic repeat request
L.R.D.A.V. College, Jagraon,
Punjab, India
(ARQ) and Forward error correction (FEC). Stop & wait ARQ and Continuous ARQ have been
discussed in this paper. Further, this paper provides basic information about different types of block
AK Tyagi codes namely cyclic redundancy check codes (CRC) and Hamming codes. Convolutional code has also
Department of Applied been discussed.
Sciences, SBS State Technical
Campus, Ferozepur, Punjab, Keywords: EDAC, ARQ, FEC, CRC
India
1. Introduction
Growth in technology has led to the demand of error free signals. Today’s communication
system consists of both wired and wireless communication [1]. Wireless communication
networks are more sensitive to bit errors than wired communication systems. Due to
advancement in data transmission techniques, chances of error introduction and noise have
also increased. Received data is more likely to be damaged by noisy channels used for
communication. So, for a reliable data transmission, it is necessary to find that whether data
is error free or not. Now a days, various error detection and correction techniques are in
practice. These EDAC [2] are used to reduce the interference in electronic medium and to
reduce the level of noise. These techniques first detect the error in the received data and then
try to produce an error free version of received data. Recently, Error correction codes (ECC)
are used for reliable data transmission in digital communication [3]. In this, the data is
encoded before storage in memory. ECC take data bits to be transmitted and form a set of
redundant bits. These redundant bits are sent to original data bits. At the receiver side, error
correction information is used to check whether received data is error free or not and then bit
error can be corrected [5]. It is to be mentioned here that the performance of transmission is
increased at the cost of additional redundant bits. Many applications do not work due to
errors present in the data. First of all, we must know the type of error present so that it can be
removed. The commonly used EDAC techniques are: - Automatic Repeat Request (ARQ)
and Forward Error correction (FEC). The rest of the paper is organized as: Section II consists
of different types of error present in data transmission, section III discusses the automatic
repeat request (ARQ) scheme, section IV explains Forward error correction scheme and its
different types namely block coding and Convolutional coding. Finally, section V concludes
the paper.

2. Types of Errors
Errors may be classified into three types [6]:-
i) Single bit error: - If during transmission, only one bit is damaged then error is said to be
single bit error.
Correspondence
Simmi Garg
ii) Multiple bit rror: - If during transmission, more than one bit is damaged then error is
Department of Physics, said to be multiple bit error.
Dev Samaj College, Ferozepur, iii) Burst Error: - If during transmission, more than one consecutive bit is damaged then
Punjab, India error is said to be burst error.
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3. Methods of EDAC in memory and are used when incorrect message is received
3.1 Automatic repeat request (ARQ) correctly. Hence, this method requires a large memory and
ARQ is a simpler way of sending and receiving information. more memory storage equipments. But this method reduces
As the name suggests, the receiver sends back a message delays and more information can be sent in lesser time.
regarding the information received. If correct information is
received then receiver resends positive acknowledgement [7]. 4. Forward Error Correction (FEC)
While if an error is received, then receiver resends a FEC is a method of error control in which systematically
negative acknowledgement. To check whether received data generated additional bits are added to the original data at the
is error free or not, CRC bits are also sent along with the transmitting side [8]. The redundant bits may be a function of
original information. CRC bits are checked in the received original information. The redundant bits allow the receiver
data, if CRC bits match then data is error free otherwise to detect and correct the error introduced during the
negative acknowledgement is send. transmission of signal. In FEC [9], receiver needs not to ask
for retransmission of the signal. Hence, FEC is a better
A) ‘Stop and wait ARQ’ choice where channel is noisy. Because in noisy channel,
In this method, the transmitter sends the information and signal has to be sent a number of times before it can be
waits for the acknowledgement respond of receiver. If received accurately. Hence, FEC reduces the complexity
positive acknowledgement is received then next information and cost of transmission [10]. Further, the channel where
message is send. Otherwise same message is retransmitted. retransmission is not possible, FEC is the only choice.
The retransmission of message is done until positive Although, all the advantages are attained at the cost of
acknowledgement is received or the number of higher channel band width.
retransmissions increases a certain limit of transmissions. The encoded data may or may not contain original
information in its original form. Accordingly, there are two
types of codes:- Systematic and Non-systematic. In
systematic codes, the code has a portion exactly sane as
original information while in non-systematic codes, code do
not has a portion exactly sane as original information. It is
believed that each transmission is incorporated with some
noise but Shannon showed that it is not true. According to
Shannon [11], if the transmission rate is less than channel
capacity, then data can be sent with no error. Hence this
theorem puts an upper limit on the transmission rate but
opens new doors for communication world. So new codes
must be developed that can send data with minimum error
probability.

Fig 1: Stop and wait ARQ scheme

B) ‘Continuous ARQ’
As the name suggests, the transmitter keep on sending the
information message continuously, until it receives negative
response from receiver. The negative response can be
considered in two ways:
Fig 2: Forward error correction scheme
a) ‘Go back N -ARQ’
In this method, transmitter keeps on sending information FEC are mainly classified into two categories:-
message continuously without waiting for the receiver a) Block codes
respond. The acknowledgement of receiver is received at the b) Convolutional Codes
transmitter end after a certain period of time (Round trip
delay). A certain number of messages have been sent in a) Block Codes:- Block codes work on block by block
round trip delay time (say N). If negative acknowledgement basis. Each block code is represented by two integer’s m
is received then transmitter sends N-1 messages again. and n. where, m is number of data bits in each codeword and
Hence, at the transmitting end there must be memory n is number of bits of code-word. There are many types of
storage device that store the data. This method is moderately block codes namely Cyclic redundancy check codes (CRC),
efficient. Although, if channel is too noisy and transmitting Hamming Codes, Turbo codes, Low density parity check
rate is high then this method is not a appropriate choice for code (LDPC), Reed Solomon code etc. all fall in the
transmission. category of block codes. Some of these are described below:
i) Cyclic redundancy check codes (CRC):- CRC is most
b) ‘Selective repeat ARQ’ widely used cyclic code. In CRC, a generator
In this method, the only those messages for which negative polynomial is used which is used as divisor in binary
respond is received are retransmitted. Hence, sender needs division. The original information to be sent is firstly
not to resend other messages that have been sent before the divided by the divisor and remainder is added as
receiving of negative response. All such messages are stored
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redundant bits to the original information [11]. This correct them. In case of noisy channels, a large number of
coded information is sent on the communication retransmissions are required for correct information
channel and at the receiver side, the received data is receiving. The delays are large hence require a lot of time.
again divided by the same divisor. If the remainder is Forward error correction helps in sending data with less
same as CRC bits then data is accepted otherwise not. A error. Various FEC codes are discussed in this paper. Each
good selection of generator polynomial will reduce the code helps in reducing errors in the received data to some
chances of error transmission. CRC is easy to extent. Although developing new codes that can send data
implement hence, are widely used in storage devices. more efficiently is an open challenge for all the researchers
working in this area.

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in ARQ are quite simple. But the main limitation of ARQ
method is that this method can detect errors but cannot
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