Error Correcting Codes

Marist College
CMPT 422
Anthony Giorgio

Parity Bits

Add a single bit to a code word

Able to detect single bit errors
Parity bit set based on number of 1 bits
Can be even or odd parity

Even Parity

Code word 010101

Has three 1's
Parity bit used to make an even number of 1's
Formula:
xor () all bit together to compute value of p
p = 0 1 0 1 0 1 = 1
Parity bit will be 1

Uses of Parity

Can detect 1-bit errors on noisy channel

Cannot correct errors
Receiver knows that there was an error
Can wait for message retransmission in hopes
that it will succeed this time

Information Transmission
Transmission
Message

Hello

Encoded
Sent
100 1000
110 0101
110 1100
110 1100
110 1111

Encoded
Received
100 1000
110 0101
110 1100
110 1100
110 1110

Message

Hell~

Information Transmission
Transmission
Message

Hello

Encoded
Sent
100 1000
110 0101
110 1100
110 1100
110 1111

Encoded
Received
100 1000
110 0101
110 1100
110 1100
110 1110

Message

Hell~
Error!

Information Transmission
with Parity Bit

Transmission
Message

Hello
Even Parity

Encoded
Sent
0100 1000
0110 0101
0110 1100
0110 1100
0110 1111

Encoded
Received
0100 1000
0110 0101
0110 1100
0110 1100
0110 1110

Message

Hell~

Information Transmission
with Parity Bit

Transmission
Message

Hello

Encoded
Sent
0100 1000
0110 0101
0110 1100
0110 1100
0110 1111

Encoded
Received
0100 1000
0110 0101
0110 1100
0110 1100
0110 1110

Message

Hell~

Error Detected

Hamming Codes

Richard Hamming invented in 1950

Worked at Bell Telephone Labs
Was frustrated with error prone punch card
readers
Had to often restart jobs due to input errors

Hamming Codes

Original Hamming code is called Hamming(7,4)

Encodes 4 bits of data into 7 bits
Uses 3 parity bits
Can detect 1 and 2-bit errors
Can correct 1 bit errors!

Hamming Distance

Difference between code words

Counts number of substitutions required to
change one string to another
Difference between 1011101 and 1001001 is 2
Hamming(7,4) has a distance of 3
Every code word requires at least 3 bit changes
to become another valid code word

Hamming Example
4

p1 is for bits xx1 = d1 d2 d4

p2 is for bits x1x = d1 d3 d4
p4 is for bits 1xx = d2 d3 d4

Hamming Example

Data bits are 1011

d1 = 1; d2 = 0; d3 = 1; d4 = 1
p1 = d1 d2 d4 = 1 0 1 = 0
p2 = d1 d3 d4 = 1 1 1 = 1
p4 = d2 d3 d4 = 0 1 1 = 0

Bit pattern is: p1 p2 d1 p4 d2 d3 d4

Hamming encoding is 0 1 1 0 0 1 1

Error Detection con't

Bit pattern is: 0110011

Flip a bit to introduce error: 0110111
Calculate parity:
b1 b3 b5 b7 =
b2 b3 b6 b7 =
b4 b5 b6 b7 =

Error Detection con't

Bit pattern is: 0110011

Flip a bit to introduce error: 0110111
Calculate parity:
b1 b3 b5 b7 = 0 1 1 1 = 1
b2 b3 b6 b7 = 1 1 1 1 = 0
b4 b5 b6 b7 = 0 1 1 1 = 1
Parity of 101 != 000 - error detected!

Error Detection con't

Bit pattern is: 0110011

Flip a bit to introduce error: 0110111
Calculate parity:
b1 b3 b5 b7 = 0 1 1 1 = 1
b2 b3 b6 b7 = 1 1 1 1 = 0
b4 b5 b6 b7 = 0 1 1 1 = 1
Parity of 101 != 000 - error detected!
p1 is bit 1, p4 is bit 4; 1 + 4 = 5
Bit 5 is in error

Extended Hamming Example

p1 = d1 d2 d4 d5 d7
p2 = d1 d3 d4 d6 d7
p4 = d2 d3 d4
p8 = d5 d6 d7

Extended Hamming Example

Data is 0x3A = 0111010

Calculate parity:
p1 = d1 d2 d4 d5 d7

p2 = d1 d3 d4 d6 d7

p4 = d2 d3 d4

p8 = d5 d6 d7

Extended Hamming Example

Data is 0x3A = 0111010

Calculate parity:
p1 = d1 d2 d4 d5 d7
=011000=0
p2 = d1 d3 d4 d6 d7
=01110=1
p4 = d2 d3 d4
=111=1
p8 = d5 d6 d7
=010=1

Extended Hamming Example

Data is 0x3A = 0111010

p1 = 0; p2 = 1; p4 = 1; p8 = 1
Encoding pattern:
p1 p2 d1 p4 d2 d3 d4 p8 d5 d6 d7

01011111010

Error Detection

Bit pattern is: 01011111010

Introduce error: 01001111010
Calculate parity:
b1 b3 b5 b7 b9 b11 =

b2 b3 b6 b7 b10 b11 =

b4 b5 b6 b7 =

b8 b9 b10 b11

Error Detection

Bit pattern is: 01011111010

Introduce error: 01001111010
Calculate parity:
b1 b3 b5 b7 b9 b11 =
001100=0
b2 b3 b6 b7 b10 b11 =
101110=0
b4 b5 b6 b7 =
0111=1
b8 b9 b10 b11
1010=0

Error Detection

Bit pattern is: 01011111010

Introduce error: 01001111010
Parity bits:
p1 = 0; p2 = 0; p4 = 1; p8 = 0
Since p4 is 1, bit 4 is in error

SEC/DED Hamming Example

Data is 0x3A = 0111010

p1 = 0; p2 = 1; p4 = 1; p8 = 1
Encoding pattern:
p1 p2 d1 p4 d2 d3 d4 p8 d5 d6 d7

01011111010

Add bit 0 with overall parity

xor all bits together to calculate value
1 0 1 0 1 1 1 1 1 0 1 0

Error Detection

Bit pattern is: 101011111010

Introduce 2-bit error: 101001111110
Calculate parity:
b1 b3 b5 b7 b9 b11 =

b2 b3 b6 b7 b10 b11 =

b4 b5 b6 b7 =

b8 b9 b10 b11

Error Detection

Bit pattern is: 1 01011111010

Introduce 2-bit error: 1 01001111110
Calculate parity:
b1 b3 b5 b7 b9 b11 =
001110=1
b2 b3 b6 b7 b10 b11 =
101110=0
b4 b5 b6 b7 =
0111=1
b8 b9 b10 b11
1110=1

Error Detection

Overall parity check using p0 indicates no error

But calculated parity is 1011, indicating error

Since error indicators do not match, this

indicates an uncorrectable 2-bit error