| Communications Toolbox | |
The biterr function compares two sets of data and computes the number of bit errors and the bit error rate. The symerr function compares two sets of data and computes the number of symbol errors and the symbol error rate. An error is a discrepancy between corresponding points in the two sets of data.
Of the two sets of data, typically one represents messages entering a transmitter and the other represents recovered messages leaving a receiver. You might also compare data entering and leaving other parts of your communication system: for example, data entering an encoder and data leaving a decoder.
If your communication system uses several bits to represent one symbol, then counting bit errors is different from counting symbol errors. In either the bit- or symbol-counting case, the error rate is the number of errors divided by the total number (of bits or symbols) transmitted.
Note To ensure an accurate error rate, you should typically simulate enough data to produce at least 100 errors. |
If the error rate is very small (for example, 10-6 or smaller), then the semianalytic technique might compute the result more quickly than a simulation-only approach. See Performance Results via the Semianalytic Technique for more information on how to use this technique.
| | Performance Results via Simulation | Example: Computing Error Rates | |
© 1994-2005 The MathWorks, Inc.