I wrote a non-mathematical introductory article about how
forward error correction works.

There's a lot of material on the web about FEC but most
of it is very technical and tends to concentrate on one or
another particular coding scheme. I couldn't find anything
that demonstrates and really explains in simple terms the
essential principle of it.

So I thought I'd try to write something, perhaps to see if
I can understand it myself.

The article should appeal to anyone who's wondered how 'coding'
a message, which increases its bandwidth and reduces its S/N,
can actually lead to greatly improved communications.

http://abelian.org/fec/pn161218/

or in pdf format

http://abelian.org/fec/pn161218.pdf

Whether I've succeeded or not, the reader will have to judge.

--
Paul Nicholson
--