Block Coding
Block Coding
This experiment examines the BLOCK CODE ENCODER and BLOCK CODE DECODER
modules. Block coding refers to the technique of adding extra bits to a digital word in order to
improve the reliability of transmission. The word consists of the message bits (often called
information, or data) plus code bits. It may also, as in the present case, contain a frame
synchronization bit. A block code adds bits to existing message bits, or blocks, independently of
adjacent blocks 1. In this experiment the blocks will be prepared by the PCM ENCODER
module. These blocks were examined in the experiment entitled PCM encoding
In information theory, the Hamming distance between two strings of equal length is the number of
positions at which the corresponding symbols are different. In other words, it measures the minimum
number of substitutions required to change one string into the other, or the minimum number
of errors that could have transformed one string into the other. In a more general context, the
Hamming distance is one of several string metrics for measuring the edit distance between two
sequences. It is named after the American mathematician Richard Hamming.
A major application is in coding theory, more specifically to block codes, in which the equal-length
strings are vectors over a finite field.