An Efficient Forward Error Correction Scheme for Wireless Sensor Network

The two basic methods to recover erroneous packets in any network are Automatic Repeat Request (ARQ), and Forward Error Correction (FEC). The life time of any wireless sensor network depends directly on the efficient use of its power resources. Power is primarily consumed during wireless transmission and reception. As energy conservation is a major issue of concern in WSN, repeat transmission is not an option and FEC would be preferred over ARQ. One such FEC scheme is (16, 8) quasi cyclic code, which can be used to correct up to 2 Bit Errors and to detect 3 Bit Errors. However, when more than 2 errors occur, retransmission of data is required. In this work, an efficient FEC scheme for WSN's has been developed to avoid retransmission which not only saves energy but also extends its functionality and enables it to handle “BURST ERRORS”. The Proposed Error Correction Scheme is effective for correcting Burst Errors of even 8 bits.