Multi Parity Check Codes

Lectures No. 15 and 16

Dr. Aoife Moloney

School of Electronics and Communications

Dublin Institute of Technology
Lectures No. 15 and 16: Multi parity Check Codes

Overview
This lecture will look at the following:
• Multi parity check codes
• Examples
• Sample question

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Lectures No. 15 and 16: Multi parity Check Codes

Introduction
• Single error parity check codes can detect a single error
in a codeword but cannot locate and correct it.
• If multiple parity bits are used it is possible to locate and
hence to correct a single errored bit.

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Lectures No. 15 and 16: Multi parity Check Codes

Multi-Parity Check Codes

• Consider the 15 bit codeword shown below, where there
are 11 data bits (d1 to d11) and 4 parity bits (p1 to p4)
located as shown:

d1 d2 d3 d4 d5 d6 d7 p1 d8 d9 d10 p2 d11 p3 p4

• In this table:
– p1 is parity control bit for d1, d2, d3, d4, d5, d6, d7
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Lectures No. 15 and 16: Multi parity Check Codes

and itself p1.

– p2 is parity control bit for d1, d2, d3, d4, d8, d9, d10
and itself p2.
– p3 is parity control bit for d1, d2, d5 ,d6, d8, d9, d11
and itself p3.
– p4 is parity control bit for d1, d3, d5, d7, d8, d10, d11
and itself p4.
• This is shown in the table below where the parity bits
and their protected bits are highlighted.

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Lectures No. 15 and 16: Multi parity Check Codes

d1 d2 d3 d4 d5 d6 d7 p1 d8 d9 d10 p2 d11 p3 p4
d1 d2 d3 d4 d5 d6 d7 p1 d8 d9 d10 p2 d11 p3 p4
d1 d2 d3 d4 d5 d6 d7 p1 d8 d9 d10 p2 d11 p3 p4
d1 d2 d3 d4 d5 d6 d7 p1 d8 d9 d10 p2 d11 p3 p4
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14

• The parity bits are locations 7, 11, 13 and 14.

• When the codeword is received each parity bit can be
evaluated and it is determined:
– If it is correct it is assigned a value of 1
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Lectures No. 15 and 16: Multi parity Check Codes

– If it signals an error it is given a value of 0

• The parity bits are then used to produce a binary number
p1p2p3p4.
• The value of this number indicates the location of the
error, by reference to the bottom row of the table.
• This is not a systematic code - the data word is visible,
but is mixed in with the error control bits.

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Lectures No. 15 and 16: Multi parity Check Codes

Example
• Say that bit d6 was errored. In this case p1 and p3 will
detect the error and will be each given the value 0. Parity
bits p2 and p4 are not checking d6, and therefore will not
detect the error and will have a value 1.
• The binary number produced is p1 p2 p3 p4 = 0101. This
is binary number 5, giving that the error is in location 5,
i.e. the error is in data bit d6.

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Lectures No. 15 and 16: Multi parity Check Codes

Example
• Say parity bit p2 was errored in transmission. This will
be detected and p2 given the value 0. All other parity
bits will have the value 1.
• This gives p1p2p3p4 = 1011. This is binary for number
11 pointing to location 11 and hence to p2.
• This error can be ignored, there is no need to repair it as
the parity bits are all discarded when the parity checking
is done.

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Lectures No. 15 and 16: Multi parity Check Codes

Example
• Say that bits d6 and d8 are both errored. In this case:
– p1 will detect the error in d6 - p1=0
– p2 will detect the error in d8 - p2=0
– p3 will detect no error as there are two errors which
gives 0 for parity - p3=1
– p4 will detect the error in d8 - p4=0
• The binary number produced is p1p2p3p4 = 0010. This
indicates an error in location 2, i.e. d3 which it will
change. The recovered data now has 3 errors d3, d6 and
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Lectures No. 15 and 16: Multi parity Check Codes

d8.
• This technique can repair one error. If there is more than
one error in the received codeword this technique can
detect that there is an error, and it attempts to repair it,
but in doing so it only adds more errors.
• This technique is useful only if the probability of two or
more errors in a received codeword is very small.

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Lectures No. 15 and 16: Multi parity Check Codes

Multi Parity Check Codes

• Multi parity checking can be extended as shown below:

No of data bits No of parity bits Total no of bits Parity bit locations Efficiency
(d = t - p) (p) (t = 2p - 1) (d/t*100%)
1 2 3 1, 2 33%
4 3 7 3, 5, 6 57%
11 4 15 7, 11, 13, 14 73%
26 5 31 15, 23 ,27, 29, 30 84%
57 6 63 31, 47, 55, 59, 61, 62 91%

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Lectures No. 15 and 16: Multi parity Check Codes

• As can be seen, the efficiency of the technique is high

when long code words are used. However, when the code-
words are long the probability of 2 errors in the word
increases and the protection disappears.

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Lectures No. 15 and 16: Multi parity Check Codes

Sample Question
• What is meant by the term ‘Channel Coding’ ?
• Append a single parity check bit to the following data for
the case of (i) even parity and (ii) odd parity:
– 1010
– 11001101
– 10001110
• The codewords shown below have 11 data bits and 4 check
bits (shown in bold). Even parity was used when assign-
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Lectures No. 15 and 16: Multi parity Check Codes

ing values to the check bits. Locate the error in each

codeword.
– 101110011011111
– 101010011001011

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Lectures No. 15 and 16: Multi parity Check Codes

Conclusion
This lecture has looked at the following:
• Multi parity check codes
• Examples
• Sample question

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