Hamming Codes

If we are trying to make sure that the correct message is received when there could be errors in its transmission, it would be good if its errors could figure out, from some advance estimate of the number of errors that will occur in transmission. Since we are transmitting only 0s and 1s, the only way that it can have an error is the change a 0 into a 1, a 1 into a 0 or an erasure which turns either a 0 or a 1 into a mark or full error. Also, resending or repeating the message of either 0 or 1 a bunch of times and focus on errors.

 What is the smallest number of errors must be made not just to turn the code word sent into a different codeword, in other words, another string of bits that actually would be sent using this code? This number of errors is called the Hamming distance of the code.

 What is the Hamming distance of the repeating the message of 0 or 1 three times code? What about the repeating n times code? What about the parity check code on four bits? The parity check code on n bits?

Codes Made of 0s and 1s

Most people have come to think of messages as a set of letters Answering a series of questions, is most likely processing it in communication with yes and no in 1s and 0s is the basis upon which modern communication is based. The modern computing system is made up of an advance set of yes and no responses that make up each set of the alphabet, and so we can transmit notes that contain regular English letters using only the 0 and 1 version of yes and no.

Error Correcting Codes

Error correcting codes should be both detect errors and correct them The question is how many bad bits can code correct The answer is, how it will depends on the number of extra bits sent

Hamming Codes
Is likely a multiple parity pit method It adds extra check bits Hamming codes can correct single bit errors

Procedures
Check bits are carefully placed throughout the transmitted message (at bits that are powers of 2 i.e. 1, 2, 4, 8, 16, etc) for the Hamming Codes The rest are for the data (3, 5, 6, 7, 9, etc0 Each check bit, checks the parity of predefined set of bits

 Assume 16 bit value to be encoded, code word is 21 bits Bit 1 checks: 1, 3, 5, 7, 9, 11, 13, 15, 17, 19, 21 Bit 2 checks: 2, 3, 6, 7, 10, 11, 14, 15, 18, 19 Bit 4 checks: 4, 5, 6, 7, 12, 13, 14, 15, 20, 21 Bit 8 checks: 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15 Bit 16 checks: 16, 17, 18, 19, 20 21