The Effectiveness of Checksums for Embedded Control Networks
- 10 February 2009
- journal article
- Published by Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) in IEEE Transactions on Dependable and Secure Computing
- Vol. 6 (1), 59-72
- https://doi.org/10.1109/tdsc.2007.70216
Abstract
Embedded control networks commonly use checksums to detect data transmission errors. However, design decisions about which checksum to use are difficult because of a lack of information about the relative effectiveness of available options. We study the error detection effectiveness of the following commonly used checksum computations: exclusive or (XOR), two's complement addition, one's complement addition, Fletcher checksum, Adler checksum, and cyclic redundancy codes (CRCs). A study of error detection capabilities for random independent bit errors and burst errors reveals that XOR, two's complement addition, and Adler checksums are suboptimal for typical network use. Instead, one's complement addition should be used for networks willing to sacrifice error detection effectiveness to reduce compute cost, Fletcher checksum for networks looking for a balance of error detection and compute cost, and CRCs for networks willing to pay a higher compute cost for significantly improved error detection.Keywords
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