Resilience of Error Correction Codes Against Harsh Electromagnetic Disturbances: Fault Mechanisms

Modern electronic systems are performing more and more safety-critical tasks, whereby a robust communication is crucial. To protect those communication channels, error detection and correction codes (EDCCs) are widely used. The very construction of an EDCC has an impact on the resiliency against electromagnetic interference. Within this paper, the effectiveness of several EDCCs is assessed and compared. It is found that the effectiveness depends on the ratio between the channel's bit rate and the frequency of the incoming disturbance. Specific focus is being given to incorrect data perceived as correct: false negatives. Each of the considered EDCCs has an increased vulnerability for false negatives at bit rates that have a specific ratio to the disturbance frequency. The main cause behind this is the repetitive or alternating bit patterns within the codes themselves. Finally, foundations are laid to develop codes that are as robust as possible against harsh electromagnetic disturbances.