Redundancy at information and data level

Research Paper (undergraduate) from the year 2024 in the subject Computer Science - General, grade: 1,0, , language: English, abstract: Almost any system used in daily life relies on transmitting data. Whether it's sending a message to a friend, transferring money to a bank account, or streaming a movie on Netflix, data is being transmitted from one point to another. However, data transmission is not always error-free. Errors from both humans and machines are quite common and can occur due to various reasons, including: • Transposed digits (e.g. when typing an IBAN or an amount of money into a banking app) • Noise in the communication channel • Interference in wireless communications • Hardware malfunctions or software bugs Although we cannot eliminate the occurrence of errors, true to the motto 'Shit happens', we can implement measures to detect these errors and ideally correct them without having to retransmit the corrupted data, a process known as Forward Error Correction (FEC). These measures range from simple methods such as checksums implemented in numbers used every day (e.g., IBAN, ISBN, EAN) to complex algorithms like Reed-Solomon codes used in communication systems and storage devices. For instance, the ability to correct errors allows data on a CD, which may be partly corrupted due to physical scratches, to be reconstructed, and ensures that QR codes remain scannable and decodable even when partially soiled or illegible.