Error Identification in Computer Network

Parity Check

In this technique, the sender appends an extra parity bit to the message. If the total number of ones in the bit sequence is odd, 1 is added as a parity bit. And, if it is even, 0 acts as a parity bit. During transmission or storage, if an error alters the number of bits, the parity bit will be used to identify whether there is an error or not. This is illustrated as shown below:

Two-dimensional Parity Check

This is just a variation of the Single-Bit Parity Check in which the original method is transformed into a matrix in which each column is associated with a parity bit based on the number of occurrences of 1s. At the receiving end, if the message has been corrupted in some way, the parity bit can identify that the message is corrupted due to some error. This is illustrated in the below example.

Checksum

This method adds up all the bits and adds the sum to the message while transmitting. This sum is called the checksum. The sender calculates the checksum before transmitting the data, and the recipient recalculates it upon receiving the data. If the two checksum values do not match with each other, there is some error in the network. However, if they match, there is no error. An example of checksum is shown below:

Cyclic Redundancy Check (CRC)

The CRC method is similar to the Checksum method with the difference that this method deals with binary division instead of binary addition. In this method, the repeated or redundant sequence of bits in the source message is identified. Then, it is added to the source message. Now, the source message will be easily divisible by the binary number formed from redundant bits which is called CRC Value.

Thus, the source message is divided by the CRC value which gives the divisor. Before the message is accepted, the receiver divides the bit sequence by the CRC value. If the remainder is zero, there is no error. But, if the remainder after dividing by the CRC value is not zero, it means that there is an error that needs to be corrected. The CRC method is outlined below:

After we have learned to identify the Errors in Computer Networks, it is now time to correct them.

This article covers in-depth details about Errors in Networking, their types, and methods of Error Correction. By the end of this, you will gain a clear understanding of Error Correction in Computer Networking. So, let us dive deep into Error Correction in Networking.

Computer Networks play a crucial role in the secured and encrypted transmission of data over the internet. However, the data transfer over a network includes many complex processes that cause some flaws in the data transmission. These flaws are called Errors which can be of different types. Therefore, it is important to correct them for efficient data transmission.

In this article, we will learn about the different methods of Error Correction in Computer Networks. We will also see the types of errors and methods to identify them. This will resolve all your doubts about the Error Correction and its methods.