While studying for a class in computer networks, the prof talked about the hamming distance between 2 valid code words in a sample code. I have read about hamming distance, and it makes sense from the perspective of telling the difference distance between 2 strings. For example:
Code Word 1 = 10110
The sender sends code word 1, and there is an error introduced, and the receiver receives 10100. So you see that the 4th bit was corrupted. This would result in the a hamming distance of 1 because:
Valid Code Word: 10110
Error Code Word: 10100
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XOR 00010
The XOR of the 2 strings results in one 1, so the hamming distance is 1. I understand it up to that point. But then the prof asks:
- What is the hamming distance of the standard CRC-16 bit protocol?
- What is the hamming distance of the standard CRC-32 bit protocol?
I'm a bit confused, and was wondering if someone could help. Thanks.