error-correcting code

A Dictionary of Computing | 2004 | 700+ words | Copyright

error-correcting code A code that is designed for channel coding, i.e. for encoding information so that a decoder can correct, with a high probability of success, any errors caused in the signal by an intervening noisy channel.

Error-correcting codes may be block codes or convolutional codes, and in either case are employed in a forward error-correction system. The most common error-correcting block codes are the Hamming codes, Bose–Chaudhuri–Hocquenghem (BCH) codes, Reed-Solomon (RS) codes, simplex codes, and the Golay (23, 12) code.

Since errors may be corrected by detecting them and requesting retransmission, the process of error correction is sometimes taken to include backward error-correction systems and, hence, error-detecting codes.

See also Shannon's model, coding theory, coding bounds.

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