EE 451

Homework 6
Due: Wednesday, March 23

Spring 2016

1. This problem considers a (15, 11) Hamming code.

a. Determine the parity check matrix and generator matrix (in systematic
form) of a (15, 11) Hamming code.

1
b. Assume that the code is used to correct =
or fewer bit errors.
2
Determine the syndrome for each correctable bit error pattern, and show
how the decoder can use the syndrome to correct bit errors.
c. Let the input be = (1,0,1,0,1,0,1,0,1,0,1).
i. What is the corresponding codeword?\par
ii. Let the received 15-tuple be r = v + e.
1. If = (0,0,1,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0), determine the
syndrome, and show how the decoder can correct the single
bit error.
2. If = (0,1,0,1,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0), determine the
syndrome and decoder output.
d. Assume that the (15, 11) Hamming code is used for error correction on a
binary symmetric channel with bit error probability . Determine the
probability of codeword decoding error, Pe , as a function of and plot Pe
versus for 104 101. Use a logarithmic scale for both axes in
the plot. Compare the decoder performance to the performance of a system
that uses no error control coding.
2. Consider the (15,4) linear binary code that is dual to the (15,11) Hamming code.
a. Determine a generator matrix for the (15,4) code.
b. Find the minimum distance for the (15,4) code.
c. If the code is to be used for error correction only, what is the bit error
correction capability of the code?
d. Assuming that the code is used to only correct all t = (d min 1) / 2 or
fewer bit errors, determine the probability of block decoding error if the
code is used over a binary symmetric channel with bit error probability .
3. Reed Muller codes are a class of linear, binary block codes with block length a
power of two, usually denoted as (n, k, d) codes, where d is the minimum distance
of the code. Consider the (32, 16, 8) code.
a. What is the size (number of rows and number of columns) of the standard
array for this code?
b. How many rows of the standard array are taken up by coset leaders
selected as all of the weight 1, weight 2, and weight 3 error patterns?
c. Assume that the code is used over a binary symmetric channel with bit
error probability , and the decoder is structured to only be able to correct
d 1
any t or fewer bit errors, where t = min
. (That is, assume that no
2
error patterns of weight 4 or larger are correctable.) Determine the
resulting probability of codeword decoding error, Pe in terms of , n, and

t. Accurately plot Pe vs. for {0.1, 0.05, 0.04, 0.03, 0.02, 0.01, 0.005,
0.002, 0.001}. Also plot vs. in the same graph, and identify the
(approximate) value of where the two curves cross. Use the loglog"
plotting command in Matlab, so that the axes are labeled using a
logarithmic scale. (Note the implication: For poor channels (large enough
value of ) use of a code can actually cause a larger bit error rate than no
coding.)