telecommunication Telecommunication is the transmission of information by various types of technologies over wire, radio, optical, or other electromagnetic systems. It has its origin in the desire of humans for communication over a distance greater than tha ...

, a burst error or error burst is a contiguous

sequence In mathematics, a sequence is an enumerated collection of objects in which repetitions are allowed and order matters. Like a set, it contains members (also called ''elements'', or ''terms''). The number of elements (possibly infinite) is called ...

of symbols, received over a

communication channel A communication channel refers either to a physical transmission medium such as a wire, or to a logical connection over a multiplexed medium such as a radio channel in telecommunications and computer networking. A channel is used for inform ...

, such that the first and last symbols are in

error An error (from the Latin ''error'', meaning "wandering") is an action which is inaccurate or incorrect. In some usages, an error is synonymous with a mistake. The etymology derives from the Latin term 'errare', meaning 'to stray'. In statistic ...

and there exists no contiguous subsequence of ''m'' correctly received symbols within the error burst. The integer parameter ''m'' is referred to as the ''guard band'' of the error burst. The last symbol in a burst and the first symbol in the following burst are accordingly separated by ''m'' correct symbols or more. The parameter ''m'' should be specified when describing an error burst.

Channel model

The Gilbert–Elliott model is a simple

channel model A communication channel refers either to a physical transmission medium such as a wire, or to a logical connection over a multiplexed medium such as a radio channel in telecommunications and computer networking. A channel is used for info ...

introduced by Edgar Gilbert and E. O. Elliott that is widely used for describing burst error patterns in transmission channels and enables simulations of the digital error performance of communications links. It is based on a

Markov chain A Markov chain or Markov process is a stochastic model describing a sequence of possible events in which the probability of each event depends only on the state attained in the previous event. Informally, this may be thought of as, "What happen ...

with two states ''G'' (for good or gap) and ''B'' (for bad or burst). In state ''G'' the probability of transmitting a bit correctly is ''k'' and in state ''B'' it is ''h''. Usually,Lemmon, J.J.: Wireless link statistical bit error model. US National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) Report 02-394 (2002) it is assumed that ''k'' = 1. Gilbert provided equations for deriving the other three parameters (''G'' and ''B'' state transition probabilities and ''h'') from a given success/failure sequence. In his example, the sequence was too short to correctly find ''h'' (a negative probability was found) and so Gilbert assumed that ''h'' = 0.5.

References

External links

The Gilbert-Elliott Model for Packet Loss in Real Time Services on the Internet

A Markov-Based Channel Model Algorithm for Wireless Networks

Markov models Data transmission {{Telecomm-stub