Scribd
Upload
80 views

15-2 The Hamming Code: Check Bits

The document describes Hamming codes, which are error correcting codes that can detect and correct single bit errors. It explains the Hamming code construction, which uses check bits interspersed among the information bits in specific positions determined by powers of two. This allows each check bit to be calculated independently. An example (7,4) Hamming code is provided to encode 4 information bits into 7 bits. Adding an additional check bit creates an extended Hamming code that can detect and correct single errors as well as detect double errors.

Uploaded by

haiqal
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
80 views

15-2 The Hamming Code: Check Bits

The document describes Hamming codes, which are error correcting codes that can detect and correct single bit errors. It explains the Hamming code construction, which uses check bits interspersed among the information bits in specific positions determined by powers of two. This allows each check bit to be calculated independently. An example (7,4) Hamming code is provided to encode 4 information bits into 7 bits. Adding an additional check bit creates an extended Hamming code that can detect and correct single errors as well as detect double errors.

Uploaded by

haiqal
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
You are on page 1/ 3

2

ERROR CORRECTING CODES

u
p
s

152

Information bit vector, u0, u1, uk1.


Parity check bit vector, p0, p1, , pm1.
Syndrome vector, s0, s1, , sm1.

152 The Hamming Code


Hammings development [Ham] is a very direct construction of a code that permits correcting single-bit errors. He assumes that the data to be transmitted consists of a certain number of information bits u, and he adds to these a number of
check bits p such that if a block is received that has at most one bit in error, then
p identifies the bit that is in error (which may be one of the check bits). Specifically, in Hammings code p is interpreted as an integer which is 0 if no error
occurred, and otherwise is the 1-origined index of the bit that is in error. Let k be
the number of information bits, and m the number of check bits used. Because the
m check bits must check themselves as well as the information bits, the value of p,
interpreted as an integer, must range from 0 to m + k, which is m + k + 1 distinct
values. Because m bits can distinguish 2 m cases, we must have
2 m m + k + 1.

(1)

This is known as the Hamming rule. It applies to any single error correcting (SEC)
binary FEC block code in which all of the transmitted bits must be checked. The
check bits will be interspersed among the information bits in a manner described
below.
Because p indexes the bit (if any) that is in error, the least significant bit of p
must be 1 if the erroneous bit is in an odd position, and 0 if it is in an even position
or if there is no error. A simple way to achieve this is to let the least significant bit
of p, p0, be an even parity check on the odd positions of the block, and to put p0 in
an odd position. The receiver then checks the parity of the odd positions (including that of p0). If the result is 1, an error has occurred in an odd position, and if the
result is 0, either no error occurred or an error occurred in an even position. This
satisfies the condition that p should be the index of the erroneous bit, or be 0 if no
error occurred.
Similarly, let the next from least significant bit of p, p1, be an even parity
check of positions 2, 3, 6, 7, 10, 11, (in binary, 10, 11, 110, 111, 1010, 1011,
), and put p1 in one of these positions. Those positions have a 1 in their second
from least significant binary position number. The receiver checks the parity of
these positions (including the position of p1). If the result is 1, an error occurred in
one of those positions, and if the result is 0, either no error occurred or an error
occurred in some other position.
Continuing, the third from least significant check bit, p2, is made an even parity check on those positions that have a 1 in their third from least significant position number, namely positions 4, 5, 6, 7, 12, 13, 14, 15, 20, , and p2 is put in one
of those positions.

THE HAMMING CODE


3
Putting the check bits in power-of-two positions (1, 2, 4, 8, ) has the advantage that they are independent. That is, the sender can compute p0 independently
of p1, p2, and, more generally, it can compute each check bit independently of
the others.
As an example, let us develop a single error correcting code for k = 4. Solving (1) for m gives m = 3, with equality holding. This means that all 2 m possible
values of the m check bits are used, so it is particularly efficient. A code with this
property is called a perfect code.1
This code is called the (7,4) Hamming code, which signifies that the code
length is 7 and the number of information bits is 4. The positions of the check bits
pi and the information bits ui are shown below.

152

p0 p1 u3 p2 u2 u1 u0
1 2

Table 151 shows the entire code. The 16 rows show all 16 possible information bit configurations and the check bits calculated by Hammings method.
TABLE 151. THE (7,4) HAMMING CODE
1
p0

2
p1

3
u3

4
p2

5
u2

6
u1

7
u0

0
1
0
1

0
1
1
0

0
0
0
0

0
1
1
0

0
0
0
0

0
0
1
1

0
1
0
1

4
5
6
7

1
0
1
0

0
1
1
0

0
0
0
0

1
0
0
1

1
1
1
1

0
0
1
1

0
1
0
1

8
9
10
11

1
0
1
0

1
0
0
1

1
1
1
1

0
1
1
0

0
0
0
0

0
0
1
1

0
1
0
1

12
13
14
15

0
1
0
1

1
0
0
1

1
1
1
1

1
0
0
1

1
1
1
1

0
0
1
1

0
1
0
1

Information
0
1
2
3

1. A perfect code exists for k = 2 m m 1, m an integerthat is, k = 1, 4, 11, 26, 57, 120,
.

ERROR CORRECTING CODES

152

To illustrate how the receiver corrects a single-bit error, suppose the code
word
1001110
is received. This is row 4 in Table 151 with bit 6 flipped. The receiver calculates
the exclusive or of the bits in odd positions and gets 0. It calculates the exclusive
or of bits 2, 3, 6, and 7 and gets 1. Lastly it calculates the exclusive or of bits 4, 5,
6, and 7 and gets 1. Thus the error indicator, which is called the syndrome, is
binary 110, or 6. The receiver flips the bit at position 6 to correct the block.
A SEC-DED Code
For many applications a single error correcting code would be considered unsatisfactory, because it accepts all blocks received. A SEC-DED code seems safer,
and it is the level of correction and detection most often used in computer memories.
The Hamming code can be converted to a SEC-DED code by adding one
check bit, which is a parity bit (let us assume even parity) on all the bits in the SEC
code word. This code is called an extended Hamming code [Hill, MS]. It is not
obvious that it is SEC-DED. To see that it is, consider Table 152. It is assumed a
TABLE 152. ADDING A PARITY BIT TO MAKE A SEC-DED CODE
Possibilities
Errors

Overall
Parity

Syndrome

even

No error

odd

0
0

Overall parity bit is in error


Syndrome indicates the bit in error

even

Double error (not correctable)

Receiver Conclusion

priori that either 0, 1, or 2 transmission errors occur. As indicated in the table, if


there are no errors, the overall parity (the parity of the entire n-bit received code
word) will be even, and the syndrome of the ( n 1 ) -bit SEC portion of the block
will be 0. If there is one error, then the overall parity of the received block will be
odd. If the error occurred in the overall parity bit, then the syndrome will be 0. If
the error occurred in some other bit, then the syndrome will be nonzero and it will
indicate which bit is in error. If there are two errors, then the overall parity of the
received block will be even. If one of the two errors is in the overall parity bit,
then the other is in the SEC portion of the block. In this case the syndrome will be
nonzero (and will indicate the bit in the SEC portion that is in error). If the errors
are both in the SEC portion of the block, then the syndrome will also be nonzero,
although the reason is a bit hard to explain.
The reason is that there must be a check bit that checks one of the two bit
positions but not the other one. The parity of this check bit and the bits it checks
will thus be odd, resulting in a nonzero syndrome. Why must there be a check bit

You might also like