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COMPARATIVE REVIEW OF AUTOMATIC REPEAT REQUEST AND FORWARD

ERROR CORRECTION METHOD OF ERROR CONTROL CODING IN DIGITAL
COMMUNICATION

Article · January 2019

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 COMPARATIVE REVIEW OF AUTOMATIC REPEAT REQUEST
AND FORWARD ERROR CORRECTION METHOD OF ERROR
CONTROL CODING IN DIGITAL COMMUNICATION

AKPU, O.M.1, AKPU, N.I.2, AND ANYADIEGWU, F. C.2

1
Department of Physics, Nasarawa State University, Keffi, Nigeria
2
Department of Physics, Michael Okpara University of Agriculture, Umudike, Nigeria

ABSTRACT
In every data processing and communication, method of error control coding is one of the most critical part of the
process. In digital communication, a retransmission technique to recover from channel errors is a feasible solution
which in some instances may be more efficient than Forward Error Correction (FEC) which is a method of
controlling error in data transmission, the transmitter sends redundant data and the receiver recognizes only the
portion of the data without errors. In this paper, we compare the performance of Automatic Repeat Request (ARQ)
and Forward Error Correction (FEC) method of error control coding in digital communication, their mode of
operations were analyzed, where ARQ and FEC are applied, its advantages and disadvantages of each were also
discussed.

Keywords: Communication, error control, coding, ARQ, FEC.

*Correspondence: [email protected]

INTRODUCTION unacceptable bit error rate [2]. Error Control Coding is

used in many digital applications like computer
Digital Communication is defined as the physical memory, magnetic and optical data storage media,
transfer of data (a digital bit stream or a digitized analog satellite, network communications, cellular telephone
signal) over a point – to – point or point – to – networks and almost any other form of digital data
multipoint communication channel [1]. Examples of communication. Rather than transmitting digital data, in
such channels are storage media, optical fibers, space. a raw bit form, the data is encoded with extra bit at the
The data are represented as an electromagnetic signal source. The extra bit in the code word provide
such as electrical voltage, radio wave, microwave or redundancy that, according to the coding scheme used,
infrared signal. Physical defects and environmental will allow the destination to use the decoding process to
interference in the communication medium can cause determine if the communication medium introduced
random bit errors during data transmission. errors and in some cases correct them so that there will
Error Control Coding is a method of detecting be no need for retransmission [3].
error, if possible correct errors to ensure information is Different error control coding schemes are
transferred intact from its source to its destination. It chosen depending on the types of errors expected, the
provides reliable digital data transmission and storage communication medium’s expected error rate and
when the communication medium used has whether or not data retransmission is possible.

Information Source Channel Digital

Source Encoder Encoder Modulator

Noise Channel

Noise

Output Source Channel Digital

Transducer Decoder Decoder Demodulato
r
Figure 1: Block diagram of digital communication system

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Akpu et al. (2019); Error control coding in digital communication

Error detection and error correction codes and correction codes. Error detection and error
Error detection codes are codes used to detect noise or correction lowers the overall probability of error.
other impairments introduced into data while it is
transmitted from source to destination. Error detection Automatic repeat request (arq) method of error
ensures reliable delivery of data across vulnerable control coding in digital communication.
networks. It minimizes the probability of passing Automatic Repeat Request (ARQ) is an error control
incorrect frames to the destination. Three widely used method where an error detection scheme is combined
methods for error detection are parity, checksum and with requests for retransmission of erroneous data.
cyclic redundancy check [4]. Error Correction Code are Every block of data received is checked using the error
codes used for detection of errors and reconstruction of detection code and if the check fails, retransmission of
the original error free data. Block codes and data is requested. This may be done repeatedly until the
convolutional codes are widely used as error detection data can be verified.

Figure 2: Block diagram of an Automatic Repeat Request System.

Automatic Repeat Request ARQ operate as follows: the In some cases, negative acknowledgements
transmitter numbers the packets to be transmitted (NAKs) are transmitted by the receiver for every packet
sequentially (using numbers from a finite set) and received in error. If NAKs are employed, a packet is
maintains a timer for each packet it transmits. The retransmitted following the receipt of a negative
receiver acknowledges (ACK), at the very least, the acknowledgement.
receipt of each successful packet (a packet that is Automatic Repeat Request ARQ employ three popular
received with no errors) by transmitting a packet protocols such as Stop and Wait, Selective Repeat and
bearing the sequence number of the packet being Go –Back – N to achieve its aim.
acknowledge. (An acknowledgement is a message sent
by the receiver to indicate that it has correctly received a Stop -and -Wait ARQ
data frame). Packets that has not been received, in a In this protocol, the sender sends one packet at a time
predetermined time interval referred to as timeout are and waits for it acknowledgment. Once its
assumed to be lost or corrupted and are retransmitted acknowledgement (ACK) has been received the next
[5]. packet is transmitted. However, if an ACK does not
arrive until a timeout timer expires, the packet is
retransmitted.

Figure 3: Stop – and – Wait ARQ

Thus, in Stop - and - Wait there is never more than a

single packet that is unacknowledged at any given
instant of time. Since the transmitter does not use the

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Akpu et al. (2019); Error control coding in digital communication

available channel during time intervals, it waits for an

ACK; the maximum data transfer rate that can be
supported is limited.

Selective repeat ARQ

In selective repeat request, the sender sends a number
of packets specified without the need to wait for
individual ACK from the receiver. The receiver
acknowledges each successfully received packet by
transmitting an ACK bearing the sequence number of
the packet being acknowledged. If an acknowledgement
is not received for a packet before the expiration of the Figure 5: GO – back – N ARQ [7].
timeout, the packet is retransmitted. Once a packet has
been retransmitted, the transmitter resumes transmission Figure 5: GO – back – N ARQ
of packets from where it left off [6].

The advantage of ARQ is that it is simple to implement

and it only has to implement error detection algorithm
and does not implement the error correction algorithm.
The disadvantage is that the transmitter would have to
send the same data so many times if the channel
condition is bad and the receiver keep detecting errors.
Automatic Repeat Request ARQ is used on short wave
radio data links in the form of ARQ-E or combined with
multiplexing as ARQ-M [7].

Figure 4: Selective repeat ARQ [6]. Forward error correction (fec) method of error
control coding in digital communication
When the Selective Repeat ARQ protocol is employed, Forward Error Correction (FEC) is an error control
packets are continuously being transmitted. The method for data transmission that make use of
inefficiency associated with Stop – and – Wait is redundant data or parity data added to a message by the
eliminated. Also when Selective Repeat is employed, sender, such that it can be recovered by a receiver even
packets can be accepted out of sequence. Hence, packets when a number of errors were introduced, either during
received out of sequence have to be buffered and the process of transmission or on storage.
sequenced before they can be delivered. In FEC, the receiver does not request retransmission,
instead it recovers (corrects) errors from the redundancy
Go – back – N (GBN) ARQ bits and specially designed structure contained in the
In Go – back – N, packets are transmitted continuously received data itself.
as in Selective Repeat, however, the receiver accepts
packets only in the order in which they were
transmitted. Packets received out of sequence are
discarded and not acknowledged. Since the receiver
accepts packets only in sequence, after a timeout, the
transmitter retransmits the packets that timed out and all
packets with sequence numbers that follow the one that
was retransmitted. Hence, each time a timeout occurs all
packets that are yet to be acknowledged are
retransmitted. GBN attempts to combine the desirable
features of Selective Repeat and Stop – and - Wait, in Figure 6: Diagram of a forward error correction scheme
the sense that packets are transmitted continuously as in
Selective Repeat without the need to buffer out of In Forward Error Correction, the data to be
sequence packets and there is no resequencing transmitted is encoded, that is a known redundancy is
overhead.

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Akpu et al. (2019); Error control coding in digital communication

added in form of additional bits. The encoded sequence Convolutional codes have memory that utilizes
is then modulated and transmitted sequence is then previous bits to encode or decode following bits (block
modulated and transmitted over a noisy channel. The codes are memoryless). Convolutional codes have
received sequence is demodulated and passed to the powerful error correcting capabilities. They are popular
decoder. The decoder uses the redundancy in the in satellite and deep space communications where band
encoded sequence for either error detection or tries to width is essentially unlimited but the BER is much
correct the errors. higher and retransmission are infeasible.
Forward Error Correction (FEC) error control coding The advantage of FEC is that no retransmission
employ block codes or convolutional codes to achieve is required even when there is an error. The
its aims. disadvantage is that it can recover the error up to only a
certain level, if there are more errors exceeding the
Block codes specific level it is impossible to recover the error. In
In block codes, the input data stream is partitioned or other to enable more capability of error correction, more
divided into small blocks of information bits, k (data redundancy bits will be added in the transmitted data,
word). Several redundancy bits; r (called parity bits or meaning it would increase overhead.
check bits) are added to each data word block, which
computes a unique larger block of total length, n=k+r
coded bits (n>k), called a ‘codeword’ (a code vector)
which are modulated and transmitted over a
transmission channel. The reverse procedure is done at
the receiver where the decoder, looks for a codeword
closest to the received vector (code vector error vector).
K n–k

Message bits Parity bits

n
Figure 7: Block codes

Block codes has low coding over head but they have
limited error correction capabilities. They are useful in
Figure 8: Convolutional codes
situations where the bit error rate of the channel is
relatively low; band width availability is limited in the
Convolutional codes have memory that utilizes
transmission and it easy to retransmit data. Examples of
previous bits to encode or decode following bits (block
Block codes are Repetition Codes, Hamming codes,
codes are memoryless). Convolutional codes have
Reed Solomon Coded, e.t.c.
powerful error correcting capabilities. They are popular
Convolutional codes in satellite and deep space communications where band
Convolutional codes are processed on a bit – by – bit width is essentially unlimited but the BER is much
basis. It is more complicated than block codes and more higher and retransmission are infeasible.
difficult to implement. In convolutional codes, the The advantage of FEC is that no retransmission
encoder creates additional bits from the data but the is required even when there is an error. The
encoded output is a function of not only the current data disadvantage is that it can recover the error up to only a
bits but also previously occurring data bits. It passes the certain level, if there are more errors exceeding the
data to be transmitted through a special shift register. As specific level it is impossible to recover the error. In
the serial data is shifted through the shift register flip – other to enable more capability of error correction, more
flops, some of the flips-flop outputs are XORed together redundancy bits will be added in the transmitted data,
to form two outputs. These two outputs are the meaning it would increase overhead.
convolutional code and this is what is transmitted [8]. FEC are frequently used in lower layer communication
The original data itself is not transmitted; instead, two as well as for reliable storage in media such as CDs,
separate streams of continuously encoded data are sent. DVDs, hard disks and RAM.
Since each output code is different, the original data can ARQ is easy to implement as it detects only
more likely to be covered at the receiver by an inverse error in the transmission while FEC is more complex to
process.

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 Akpu et al. (2019); Error control coding in digital communication

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