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Procedia Technology 4 (2012) 737 – 742

C3IT-2012

An Efficient Forward Error Correction Scheme for Wireless

Sensor Network
M.P.Singha, Prabhat Kumarb
a
Computer Science & Engineering Department ,National Institute of Technology Patna,Patna -800005, India
b
Information Technology Department ,National Institute of Technology Patna,Patna -800005, India

Abstract

The two basic methods to recover erroneous packets in any network are Automatic Repeat Request (ARQ), and
Forward Error Correction (FEC). The life time of any wireless sensor network depends directly on the efficient use of
its power resources. Power is primarily consumed during wireless transmission and reception. As energy conservation
is a major issue of concern in WSN, repeat transmission is not an option and FEC would be preferred over ARQ. One
such FEC scheme is (16, 8) quasi cyclic code, which can be used to correct up to 2 Bit Errors and to detect 3 Bit
Errors. However, when more than 2 errors occur, retransmission of data is required. In this work, an efficient FEC
scheme for WSN’s has been developed to avoid retransmission which not only saves energy but also extends its
functionality and enables it to handle “BURST ERRORS”. The Proposed Error Correction Scheme is effective for
correcting Burst Errors of even 8 bits.
© 2011 Published by Elsevier Ltd. Selection and/or peer-review under responsibility of C3IT
Open access under CC BY-NC-ND license.
Keywords: FEC; ARQ; Burst Errors

1. Introduction

A Wireless Sensor Networks (WSN) can be defined as a network of devices, denoted as nodes, capable
of sensing the environment and communicating the information gathered from the monitored field through
wireless links. The data is forwarded to a sink that can use it locally or is connected to other networks
through a gateway. The movement generally uses multiple hops. The nodes can be stationary or moving.
They can or cannot be aware of their location. They can be homogeneous or heterogeneous.
The main design concern for any applications of wireless sensor networks is the limited energy supply,
limited computation capability and communication range of sensor nodes as compared with other
computing and communicating devices [1], [4]. Lifetime of wireless sensor network depends on lifetime of
battery of individual sensor nodes. The nodes play a dual role as data sender and data router in a multi-hop
WSN. Aggressive energy management techniques are used to fulfill the main design goals of WSNs which
is to carry out data communication while trying to prolong the lifetime of the network and prevent
connectivity degradation. One way to conserve the energy in WSNs is to avoid retransmission due to error
as far as possible and instead use efficient error control scheme for error correction.
Forward error correction (FEC) also called channel coding is a system of error control for data
transmission, whereby the sender adds systematically generated redundant data to its messages, also known
as an error-correcting code. The carefully designed redundancy allows the receiver to detect and correct a
limited number of errors occurring anywhere in the message without the need to ask the sender for

2212-0173 © 2012 Published by Elsevier Ltd. Open access under CC BY-NC-ND license.
doi:10.1016/j.protcy.2012.05.120
738 M.P. Singh and Prabhat Kumar / Procedia Technology 4 (2012) 737 – 742

additional data. FEC gives the receiver an ability to correct errors without needing a reverse channel to
request retransmission of data, but this advantage is at the cost of a fixed higher forward channel
bandwidth. FEC is therefore applied in situations where retransmissions are relatively costly, or impossible
such as when broadcasting to multiple receivers. In particular, FEC information is usually added to mass
storage devices to enable recovery of corrupted data. The maximum fractions of errors or of missing bits
that can be corrected are determined by the design of the FEC code, so different forward error correcting
codes are suitable for different conditions.
The purpose of this paper is to establish a common channel coding standard for bandwidth efficient
spacecraft and ground systems communications. The need for bandwidth efficiency has prompted the
creation of an alternate coding standard which can enhance the performance and increase efficiency in
communications. This alternate coding standard enhances the efficiency thus increasing the life of the
nodes of the Wireless Sensor networks. In order to ensure that data is transmitted securely over the network
without any loss during the transmission processes for the verification of the data such as retransmission
have to be carried out which are generally time-consuming as well as energy-consuming. Thus using this
alternate common channel coding standard these disadvantages can be eliminated.
The new Error Correction scheme has a wide scope and can be implemented for communication
channels in the applications of Wireless Sensor nodes like Broadcasting, Environmental monitoring,
logistics, positioning and tracking, healthcare monitoring. The new common channel coding implements
the quasi cyclic code which obviates the need to request for the retransmission of the data which helps in
reducing the energy consumption to a great extent.
Rest of the paper is organized as follows. Section 2 discusses the present error correction scheme.
Section 3 introduces proposed error correction scheme. Section 4 compares proposed scheme with old
scheme. Section 5 details the advantages of proposed scheme. Section 6 gives the limitation of proposed
scheme. Finally, Section 7concludes this paper.

2. The Present Error Correction Scheme

At present, a systematic (16, 8) quasi-cyclic code that can correct 2-bit errors, as well as detect 3-bit
errors is in practice. A quasi-cyclic code is de¿ned as the code wherein a cyclic shift of n0 digits always
produces another code word. Thus, encoding of the message can be done serially using linear feedback
shift registers, or in parallel if low latency is required. The implementation checks for and corrects single
and double bit errors. If any error is detected, a signal is sent to the higher layer that an error has occurred.
The syndrome value is represented by 8-bits. This implies that there are a total of 256 possible syndromes.
Of these, the zero syndrome is used when there are no errors in the received message, 16 are used by
single-correctable errors, and 120 by double-correctable errors.
The generator matrix G and the parity matrix H is given by

G = [I8 C] = H = [CT I8] =

It is to be noted that the minimum Hamming distance between any two rows is 5.
An example of how data is encoded, and how received message can be corrected is shown below.
Let the message being sent be 0100 0010. The encoded message is therefore

[0 1 0 0 0 0 1 0] = [0100001010011100]

It is assumed that the second and third bits are inverted due to noise in the wireless channel. Then, the
received message is 0010 0010 1001 1100. Multiplying the received message by the transpose of the
parity matrix H,
 M.P. Singh and Prabhat Kumar / Procedia Technology 4 (2012) 737 – 742 739

[0010001010011100] = [10101111]

It is to be noted that the syndrome obtained is the exclusive-or of the 2nd and 3rd rows of H T. Thus at
the receiver end, it is found that the 2nd and 3rd bits are inverted and hence erroneous and need to be
corrected. The main of this scheme are (i) When the Burst Error is of more than 2 bit, the received
codeword is rejected and the receiver asks for retransmission, (ii) Another problem is that if an inversion
of bit occurs during transmission, it will be located in a particular codeword.
3. Proposed Forward Error correction Scheme
3.1. Module Description
The proposed scheme consists of three modules
Encoding
x Creation of Generator matrix from the Binary matrix and Identity matrix
x Generation of Parity matrix by concatenating the identity matrix and the transpose of binary matrix
x Conversion of Data word into Code word by multiplication
Transmission
x The code word is transmitted in a Column-wise fashion. This is also called as the column major
transmission, i.e Transmission starts from the last element of the last row and the last column and
proceeds in a cyclic way along the Column major
Decoding
x The Code word received at the receiver’s end is decoded into the data word and the syndrome is
compared with the predefined table values of the syndrome for error detection

3.2. Algorithm

1. Divide data into 8-bit fragments and Encode each of the data byte using (16,8) quasi cyclic code.
2. Group the encoded code words into groups of 4 code words and transmit the code words in column
major, such that the mapping of bits in retransmission medium to code words is as follows, the bits
at positions p=4n,4n+1,4n+2,4n+3 where n=0 to 15 to
codeword1,codeword2,codeword3,codeword4 respectively and the data bit positions in particular
code words are at (15-n)
3. Decode the received code words using (16,8) quasi cyclic code decoding scheme.

FRAGMENTATION (k)
x Let fragmented data word be D QUASI_CYCLIC_CODE (generator, parity)
ENCODING (dataword)
x Generator matrix=concatenation(identitymatrix[k],binarymatrix[k*r(parity)]
x Parity matrix=concatenation((binarymatrix)T,identitymatrix[k])
x Multiply D with generator to get codeword
TRANSMISSION(codeword)
x Transmission along column major
DECODING(codeword)
x Data word= Codeword * (Generator)-1

3.3. Energy Analysis

Power Consumption in Original Scheme

Energy of converting dataword into Codeword =E1(D,C), Energy of Transmission over a distance d =
E1(T1,d)
740 M.P. Singh and Prabhat Kumar / Procedia Technology 4 (2012) 737 – 742

Total Energy = E1= E1(D,C)+E1(T,d)

In new scheme
Group of 4 codewords are sent
Energy of converting dataword into codeword =E2(D,C)=4*E1(T,d)
Energy of storage = E2s § 0
Energy of converting from Row Major to Column Major = E2(r,c)
Energy of transmission E2(T,d) = E1(T,d)
Total Energy = E2(D,C) + E2s + E2(r,c) + E2(T,d)
The transmission of data according to new encoding scheme is shown below

Data in transmission channel is generated by getting it column wise from the above matrix started from
column 0
0 0 0 0 1 0 0 00 1 0 0 1 1 1 0 0 0 1 1 1 0 1 1 0 1 0 1 1 1 0 1 1 0 1 1 0 0 0 0 1 1 1 0 1 1 1 0 1 0 1 10 0 00 0 0
0 00 0 0 0
During transmission, there may be burst error like below
0 0 0 0 1 0 0 11 0 1 1 0 1 1 0 0 0 1 1 1 0 1 1 0 1 0 1 1 1 0 1 1 0 1 1 0 0 0 0 1 1 1 0 1 1 1 0 1 0 1 1 0 0 00 0 0
0 00 0 00

As it is known that the errors of length up to 2 bits can be corrected, the above errors in code words are
successfully corrected and accepted .Hence the burden of retransmission is reduced.

4. comparison of proposed scheme with old

4.1. Comparison of Energy consumptions

In case of Burst Error, in original scheme the received codeword is rejected and the receiver asks for
retransmission. Assuming that when 4 code words are sent, burst error occurs in one of them, Then
energy consumed
E1= E1(D,C) + 5E1(T1,d) -- (1)
Whereas , in the new scheme the Burst Error can be corrected. Therefore, Total Energy consumed =
E2(D,C) + E2s + E2(r,c) + E2(T,d) --(2)
Comparing the equations (1) and (2), E1-E2 = E1(T, d)-E2s - E2(r, c) § E1(T, d)
Hence the energy saved is almost equivalent to E1 (T, d)
In some Radio Chips used in Sensor Nodes, the Energy consumed for transmitting one bit over a distance
of 100m is equivalent to energy consumed by it to process 3000 instructions.
In the case of Original Algorithm, if more than 2 bit error occurs then Retransmission becomes necessary
Extra Overhead
Energy Consumed = Energy required to process 16*3000= 48000 instructions
 M.P. Singh and Prabhat Kumar / Procedia Technology 4 (2012) 737 – 742 741

Table 1.Comparison of old and new scheme

Sl Old Scheme New Scheme

Transmission of the data word takes place in a horizontal
1 Transmission of the data word takes place in a vertical manner
manner
Effective only for correcting Burst Errors of size less than
2 Effective for correcting Burst Errors of even 2 or more bits
or equal to 2 bit
When the Burst Error is of more than 2 bit, the received Even when the Burst error is of more than 2 bit, the error is
3
codeword is rejected detected as it is distributed across the data word
Retransmission of the codeword becomes necessary when Burden of Retransmission is reduced or rather avoided
4
there is a burst error
Efficiency is less because of the Retransmission of the code Efficiency is comparatively more as Retransmission is reduced
5
word or rather avoided

5. Advantages of New Scheme

The proposed scheme has following advantages over the old scheme. (i) It can correct burst error of length
up to 8 bit. (ii) In original scheme if an inversion of bit occurs during transmission, it will be located in a
particular codeword, (iii) Whereas in new scheme if an inversion occurs It may be located in any one of
the four code words because in every 4 bits in transmission medium, there is a bit from each of the 4 code
words, (iv) The possibility of particular code word being affected by noise is reduced to ¼. For example,
From pre-calculated measurements it is clear that most of the errors occurring are either 2 bit or single bit.
So the number of affected data bits in 64-bits is less than 8. In the best case and worst cases,
x The error distribution over 4 code words may be less than 3 bits
x It achieves the performance of (16,8) quasi cyclic code and it also guarantees the correction of
burst error.
x Supposing that 8 inversions are present, when two code words get more than 2 errors,
retransmission of 2 code words has to be done.
x Even if there are 3 inversions in a block of 16-bit, it might be possible for other blocks either to have a
maximum of 5 errors or to not have any error. In this case the errors are corrected and the code word is
retransmitted

6. Limitations of Proposed Scheme

If the error occurs more than twice at only 4n positions or 4n+1, or 4n+2 or 4n+3, it implies that the
corresponding code would contain more than 2 errors. Hence it becomes essential to retransmit that
code word again. When more than 8 errors are present in a block of 64-bit then retransmission of at
least one codeword has to be performed.

7. Conclusion

A common channel coding standard is developed for the transmission of data using the nodes of Wireless
Sensor networks which have a wide range of applications such as in weather and environmental
monitoring, healthcare, positioning and tracking, spacecraft and ground system communications. This new
coding standard obviates the need for the retransmission of the data which is generally a time-consuming
and energy-consuming process and sometimes an impossible process too in the case of applications such
as Broadcasting to multiple nodes. The newly proposed error correction scheme implements the Forward
Error Correction (FEC). This in contrast to the Automatic Repeat Request (ARQ) and consumes lesser
energy. As the power is scarce for wireless transmission and reception in the wireless sensor nodes the
FEC is preferred over the ARQ.
The Forward Error correction implements a (16-8) quasi cyclic code. As per the Original Error
Correction Scheme the Transmission of the data word takes place in a horizontal manner. The Original
Error Correction Scheme is effective only for correcting Burst Errors of size less than or equal to 2 bit.
When the Burst Error is of more than 2 bit, the received codeword is rejected. Retransmission of the
codeword becomes necessary when there is a burst error. Hence in order to overcome these drawbacks a
742 M.P. Singh and Prabhat Kumar / Procedia Technology 4 (2012) 737 – 742

new error correction scheme is proposed. As per the Newly Proposed Error Correction Scheme the
transmission of the data word takes place in a vertical manner. The Proposed Error Correction Scheme is
effective for correcting Burst Errors of even 2 or more bits. Even when the Burst error is of more than 2
bit, the error is detected as it is distributed across the data word. Burden of Retransmission is reduced or
rather avoided in this case. Efficiency is comparatively more because the energy expended for the
retransmission in the case of the original correction scheme is saved when the new proposed error
correction scheme is implemented.

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