Methods and Apparatus for Detecting Errors in Encoding and Decoding of Data

A method of preparing data for transmission from a sender to a receiver, comprising:

• processing unencoded data at the sender to create an encoded message for transmission to the receiver;
• decoding a copy of the encoded message at the sender to create a decoded copy of the encoded message;
• and
• at the sender, comparing the unencoded data with the decoded copy of the encoded message.

A memory device storing a software module for execution by a processor at a sender for data communication from the sender to a receiver, comprising:

• an encoder module for converting unencoded data to an encoded message;
• a decoder module for formatting the encoded message for transmission and passing the message to a communication interface;
• and
• an error detector module for determining if data communication is affected by encoding or decoding, the error detector module comprising:
• a decoder module for decoding a copy of the encoded message to produce a decoded copy;
• and
• a comparison module for comparing the unencoded data and the decoded copy of the encoded message, the comparison module being operative to determine that an encoding or decoding error has occurred if the unencoded data does not match the decoded copy of the encoded message.