What is Forward Error Correction (FEC)?
Forward Error Correction (FEC) is a type of error correction which improves on simple error detection schemes by enabling the receiver to correct errors once they are detected. This reduces the need for retransmissions. FEC works by adding check bits to the outgoing data stream. Adding more check bits reduces the amount of available bandwidth, but also enables the receiver to correct for more errors. Forward Error Correction is particularly well suited for satellite transmissions, where bandwidth is reasonable but latency is significant.
