EEM 467

DIGITAL COMMUNICATIONS
Linear Block Codes

Lecturer

Assist.Prof.Dr. Nuray At

Error Control Coding

Designing codes for the reliable transmission of digital information

over a noisy channel.
Codes can either correct or merely detect errors
Codes that can detect errors are called error-detecting codes
Codes that can correct errors are called error-correcting codes
Error correction is more complex than error detection!
Error control codes are classified into
Block Codes
Convolutional Codes

Channel Coding

The channel encoder introduces systematic redundancy into

the data stream
The combined objective of the channel encoder and decoder is
to minimize the effect of channel noise
Channel Coding Theorem:
Given a DMS X with entropy H(X) and a DMC with capacity C, if
, there exists a coding scheme for which the source
output can be transmitted over the channel with an arbitrary

Block Codes

Data sequence is divided into sequential blocks each k bits

long
Each k-bit block is converted into an n-bit block, where n > k
The resultant block code is called (n,k) block code and the ratio
k/n is called
code rate.

Linear Block Codes

Binary Field: The set K = {0, 1} is a binary field. The binary
field has two operations, addition and multiplication
Addition

Multiplication

Linear Codes:
Let
codewords in C.

and

be two

A code C is called linear if the sum of two codewords is also a

codeword in C.
A linear code C must contain the zero codeword
Hamming Weight and Distance:
Let a, b, and c be codewords of length n.
The Hamming weight of c, denoted by w(c), is the number of
1's in c.
The Hamming distance between a and b, denoted by d(a, b), is

Thus, the Hamming weight of a codeword c is the Hamming

distance between c and 0, that is
Similarly, the Hamming distance can be written in terms of
Hamming weight as
Minimum Distance:
The minimum distance dmin of a linear code C is defined as the
smallest Hamming distance between any pair of codewords in C.
Theorem:
The minimum distance dmin of a linear code C is the smallest

Error Detection and Correction Capabilities:

The minimum distance dmin of a linear code C determines the error
detection and correction capabilities of C.
A linear code C of minimum distance dmin can detect up to t
errors iff
A linear code C of minimum distance dmin can correct up to t
errors iff

Generator Matrix: In an (n,k) linear block code C,

If the data bits appear in specified location of c, the code C is
called systematic. That is,
Here we assume that the first k bits of c are the data bits.

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In a matrix form

Hence,

and

The k x n matrix G is called the generator matrix.

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Parity-Check Matrix:
Let H denote an m x n matrix defined by
where
matrix of C.

We have

Thus,

. The matrix H is called the parity-check

Syndrome Decoding

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Let r denote the received word of length n when codeword c of

length n was sent over a noisy channel.
where e is called the error pattern. Consider first the case of a
single error in the ith position. Then,
Evaluate

as

where s is called syndrome of r.

Using s and noting that
is the ith row of HT, we can
identify the error position by comparing s to the rows of HT.
Note that the zero syndrome indicates that r is a codeword and
is presumably correct.

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Example: Consider a linear block code with the following paritycheck matrix

a. Determine the generator matrix G.

b. Suppose that the received word is r = [1 1 0 1 1 0]. Decode
this received word, i.e., find c and d.

The Hamming Codes

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Code length:
Number of parity symbols: n k = m
Error correcting capability: t = 1
The parity-check matrices for binary Hamming codes are quite
easy to construct. For a Hamming code of length
construct a matrix whose columns consist of all nonzero m-tuples.
For example, a parity-check matrix for a (15,11) Hamming code

The ordering of columns is arbitrary; another arrangement

would still define a (15,11) Hamming code.